


No Limits

by biaswreckingfics



Series: No Exit [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Idols, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Siblings, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brother-Sister Relationships, Complete, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Female Characters, Female Protagonist, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mafia EXO (EXO), Male-Female Friendship, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV Multiple, POV Original Character, POV Original Female Character, POV Second Person, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Relationships, Protective Older Brothers, Protective Siblings, Reader-Insert, Series, Serious Injuries, Siblings, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Strong Female Characters, Team as Family, The Author Regrets Nothing, Wordcount: 50.000-100.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 60,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28475475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/biaswreckingfics/pseuds/biaswreckingfics
Summary: She found her brother, she formed a family, and she made the Elders pay for their role in her parent's deaths... Now, it's time to finish off the Baem for good. All she has to do is bring EXO back together, find their MIA member, and stop being distracted by a certain somebody... because one slip up in this world can equal death.(Sequel to No Exit)
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun & Reader, Byun Baekhyun/Reader, Byun Baekhyun/You
Series: No Exit [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2066445
Kudos: 6





	1. Part 1

1 week ago...

He was disoriented, confused, and he had no idea where he was. Metal littered the ground all around him, and the air was filled with a burning stench. His ears rang, and his head was pounding... and he couldn't remember anything.

Why was he in this building that was still smoldering with heat? He looked around for another human being, and he quickly regretted what he found. There were other people around him, scattered throughout the remains of the building, but he doubted they were still alive... Some of them were missing half of their bodies.

Turning away from the carnage, he spotted an exit door a couple feet away from him that he quickly went towards. Maybe once he got outside, he'd be able to figure out what was going on.

As soon as he opened the door, the sun blinded him. He shielded his eyes and blinked multiple times to clear out the colorful vision he now saw and was met with more bodies and metal. The smell was a little better outside, but nothing was helping him make sense of his situation.

It looked like he was in the middle of a field? What was left of the building was surrounded by tall grass he could hardly see over, and the only exit appeared to be a gravel road leading away from the building. Not knowing what else to do, he began walking toward the road.

As he walked, he checked over his body. He must've been in there when it exploded, but why and how was he the only survivor? His clothes were singed and ripped, and he was dressed in all black like a fucking spy or something. His body ached everywhere, but he figured that was to be expected when you woke up in a building that had apparently exploded.

Feeling his clothes for a phone or a note proved unsuccessful, but what he did find had him stopping in his tracks. There were weapons... all kinds of weapons. He pulled out knives, some type of brass knuckle thing, and other items that he didn't even know what they were. Who the hell was he?

The crunching of gravel caught his attention, and he froze. His instincts screamed at him to run and hide, but why? It's not like he was the one who blew up the place... right?

He stood there frozen as two black SUVs come flying up the road. When they reached him, they slammed on their brakes, and a group of men quickly jumped out with their guns drawn. All he could do was stand there in quiet shock as he took in the group in front of him.

The men eyed him cautiously, and he could see the confusion in their eyes. He must've shared the same look as them because a giant man, who he could only describe as a leader, stepped to the front of the group.

Logically, he thought he should be scared, any normal human would be, but he wasn't... For some reason, he felt intense anger towards them.

"Oh Sehun."

His eyes flew to the leader before looking at the other men. When nobody moved, and they continued to watch him, he furrowed his eyebrows. Was the man talking to him? Was he Oh Sehun?

"Can you not talk?" The leader asks him, but he decides to stay quiet. Maybe this stranger could give him an idea of what was happening.

"Do you know where you are?... Do you know who you are?"

"Do you?" He finally allows himself to speak.

"I just said your name, didn't I?"

So, he was Sehun...

The men slowly begin lowering their weapons, and confusion clearly filled them as they looked at each other. The leader eyed him curiously, almost like he was analyzing him. It made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Do you know who we are?" The leader tries again.

Sehun silently shook his head because he didn't know what else to do. This man clearly knew who he was, so there was no point in lying to him.

"We are the Baem."

The name meant nothing to him, and he could see the leader's eyes slightly widen once he realized this.

"You don't remember us... You don't remember anything..." He says with quiet awe before clasping his hands together and approaching Sehun. "You're one of us, Sehun. A member of the Baem."

Sehun could only stare at the man in front of him, trying to process what he was saying, which is why he missed the other men's startled expressions.

"I don't know what that means..." Sehun admits.

The leader launches into a story that normally Sehun wouldn't believe but considering he was carrying weapons and standing outside of a blown-up building... Maybe it wasn't so farfetched... But really. Him? In the mafia? No way... right?

He gets a feeling that something isn't right, but what could be right in this situation? There were literally dead bodies everywhere.

"So, what happened here then?"

The leader, who he learned was named Minho, angrily spits out one word. "EXO."

Sehun could tell the man was waiting for a reaction from him, but he never got one. Sehun didn't know what EXO was any more than he knew what Baem was.

"You don't remember EXO either?" Minho asks him. "They're scum, and they're our biggest rivals. They blew up this building with our men in it. With you in it."

Sehun looked back at the building he had woken up in. This EXO group had blown it up? While he was inside?

"EXO is our enemy. Don't forget that."

Sehun nods along with Minho's words, but something about this entire situation wasn't sitting right with him. Minho was telling him EXO were the bad guys, and they did blow up a building he was in, but an alarm was blaring in his head. He didn't know much, couldn't even remember his own name, but his instincts were trying to tell him something.

A week later, Sehun was settled in with the Baem, and they had given him his first official test as a Baem member. Well, that he could remember anyway.

He was sent to scout out EXO's allies. Figure out who was working with them and who was willing to put their life on the line to go to EXO's compound.

It did not sit right with him that he was, essentially, crashing a memorial for one of their fallen members. Apparently, the man had lost his life because of the same explosion Sehun had been in. It was crazy to him how one of them survived, and the other had not.

Sehun made sure to stay hidden in the trees, because enemy or not, they had lost someone they loved, and he would hope nobody would crash a funeral for someone he loved.

He thought it was slightly weird that this was the task the Baem had wanted him to carry out. He couldn't remember anything, so how would he know the importance behind this mission? When he pointed this out, they gave him pictures of nearly 100 people and made him study them just so he knew who to look for, which made the whole thing seem even more absurd to him.

Not to mention, they only showed him EXO's pictures once. They asked if he recognized them and then took their pictures away, so he'd be lucky if he remembered what they even looked like.

He wasn't completely alone, though. The Baem had put a tracker on him for his "safety", and there were a couple of men waiting for him back at the truck. They claimed he could be captured while on this mission, but he happened to notice nobody else had a tracker. Maybe they thought he would run for it the first chance he got. Maybe he should.

Sehun silently watched the yard and the coming and going of the people, but he was bored. Was this really what he did for a living? He shook his head and looked around the yard.

Why did it seem so familiar? Why did it feel like he's been in this yard before? Was this not his first time spying on EXO?

Red movement caught his attention, and he watched as a tall red-haired man charged toward a group of men. He knew most of the men as Bangtan, and he wasn't sure, but the way everyone ran to the group after the red-haired man had Sehun thinking he was yelling at EXO's leader.

An internal struggle within EXO? That's something the Baem would want to know... but why did he feel like he shouldn't tell them?

As he watched the red-haired man run away, he had to fight the sudden urge to follow after him, and he had no idea why.

As Sehun tried to make sense of everything, the yard cleared out, and he was about to go when a girl stepped into the backyard. She was pretty, and he felt an odd urge to protect her, but from who? Himself?

He knew exactly who she was and felt sorry for her. The Baem had plans for her, for all of them, and suddenly Sehun felt determined to find out what those plans were.

Y/N's POV - Three weeks after the memorial

You sigh as you fall back onto the blue mats. Exhausted didn't even begin to describe how you were feeling, and the sweat that dripped off your body would normally send you running to the showers, but you weren't sure you could even move.

Jongin dropped down onto the mat next to you, equally sweaty but far from exhausted. You swore on everything that if he was going to make you spar for one more minute, you were going to stab him.

"Your fighting skills are majorly improving. Maybe someday you'll even be able to kick my ass." Jongin tells you before looking at Baekhyun as he drops down on the mat with a groan. "You're doing better too, not that you were really all that bad before."

You look over at Baekhyun as he rests his arms on his face and lets out another groan.

"I didn't realize how much Kyungsoo did. How did he fit all of that talent into his tiny body?"

You tried really hard not to stare at his toned physique as he spoke, but he was sweaty and shirtless, and your willpower was almost nonexistent at this moment. You should've been used to it by now, him and Jongin being shirtless while you train, but there was something so captivating about this man.

Ever since Kyungsoo's memorial and your argument with your brother to fight the Baem, your brother had decided you needed to be put into training, which meant every EXO member had to train you in their area of expertise. Jongin was training you to fight, Jongdae was showing you the technological side of things, Yixing taught you basic first aid, and even drunk Chanyeol was teaching you all about weapons.

Your days were long and tiring, but your skills were undeniably improving, and luckily for you, Baekhyun was doing some of the training with you, even though it seemed like he didn't really need it.

He was already a great fighter and was good with weapons, but ever since he took over Kyungsoo's position, he's felt the need to be the absolute best at everything he does. You didn't know if it was because he felt like he needed to be as great of a leader as Kyungsoo was or if he didn't feel like he would be able to fill Kyungsoo's shoes, but he put 110% into everything.

When Kyungsoo was alive, you never really understood what his position was. When you asked the guys, they told you he did everything. He was there "ACE", a jack of all trades member. He was whatever they needed.

You knew that Baekhyun had lost his position as their medical leader when Yixing, someone who was actually trained in the medical field, joined the group. He was happy to step back as the unit leader because the position was thrust upon him, but you always had a feeling he felt "lesser" than the other EXO members since he no longer led a unit.

When your brother asked him if he wanted to take over Kyungsoo's position, Baekhyun jumped at the chance, and he's been working his ass off ever since.

"You're doing awesome, Baek. I'm really proud of you."

His face lit up from your compliment, and he smiled that blinding smile of his. "Jongin's right about you too. You're improving in everything."

He pauses and rolls over onto his stomach, resting his chin on his arms and showcasing the muscles on his back that you tried to ignore. "Are you absolutely sure this is what you want?"

You push down the irritation you feel at the question. When it came to Baekhyun, you knew he only asked because he didn't want you to regret anything, unlike your brother, who only asked because he hoped you would change your mind and let them handle it.

"If you ask me that one more time, I'll break your arm." You tell him before flashing him a smile.

He laughs hard enough to shake his body before saying, "I just don't want you to get hurt... in any type of way."

You couldn't stop the blush that came from his words, but luckily your body was already so flushed from the intense workout that it wasn't obvious. You glance over at Jongin, who was quietly watching the two of you with a smirk.

"What?" You ask, putting the attention onto him.

"Nothing, nothing..."

Before you could get anything out of him, a pissed-off looking Minseok walks into the training room. The three of you all glance up at his entrance, and it doesn't escape you that he and Jongin are still avoiding eye contact.

"Get showered and into the meeting room in 10 minutes."

"What happened?" Baekhyun asks as he and Jongin immediately stand up.

"Chanyeol fucked up with his unit. Again."

The three of you groan as Baekhyun's body drops back down onto the mat. This was becoming a weekly thing since Chanyeol came back from his three day "missing" stint after the memorial.

Chanyeol was always drunk or high and could literally care less about EXO. He was becoming a liability, and you were scared of his "I don't give a fuck" attitude. Either he or one of his men were going to end up dead if he didn't pull himself together.

Suho's POV

He quietly waited as his men filtered into the room. It was silent, which was the way things were around here ever since they lost Kyungsoo. It was like the loss of one of them, two if you count Sehun, sucked the life out of all of them.

He silently observed his men as they waited for the meeting to start. Minseok and Jongin sat on opposite sides of the room, which had become their new normal. Jongdae and Yixing were both withdrawn into themselves, not really speaking unless they needed to. Chanyeol was a drunk fucking mess, and you and Baekhyun were sat next to each other like always.

Baekhyun almost seemed like he was the only one to keep it together, and he was he sure had you to thank for that. He worked his ass off, and he often tried to make the other members smile, but Junmyeon could clearly still see the sadness and exhaustion in the younger man.

Fuck. He was watching his men fall apart all over again, and it was slowly killing him.

The only other time he had seen them like this was when they lost the other five members almost six years ago... and he didn't think any of them would come back from that.

Minseok, Jongin, Baekhyun, and he were the only ones still here from that time, the other five all fell in afterward, but he will never forget how broken the three were. Minseok had been close to Jiho, Jongin to Tao, and Baekhyun had lost his brother... They all almost drowned in their sadness, and the only thing that pulled them from their pain was the other five joining them and coming together.

Chanyeol and Sehun brought fire and life into EXO with their anger for vengeance and bond as a family. Jongdae and Kyungsoo brought a youthful, fun friendship the men had forgotten about to them. While Yixing brought everyone a calm they weren't used to. A peace they all desperately craved. Each member was essential, and now two of them were gone.

He looked over at Chanyeol and remembered when he joined. Chanyeol was angry and wanted blood, but underneath that, he was also lost. His big brother had been taken from him, and he didn't know what to do with himself, but at least he had Sehun to turn to then. Sehun was younger and scared, but he was willing to do anything for his family.

The Chanyeol in front of him now was different. Hateful, thoughtless, spiteful. It was hard to watch someone who once burned so brightly dim. Junmyeon didn't want this for him. He didn't want to watch Chanyeol be super destructive and lash out at everyone.

"Are you drugged out?"

Chanyeol shrugs at his question, not much emotion crossing his face. "Not right now, just tipsy."

Junmyeon sighs and looks around the room before asking, "Do I need to bring in a fucking therapist for everyone?"

"Our therapist would need a therapist after that." Jongin tries to joke, but the truth of it causes it to fall flat.

Junmyeon shakes his head and takes a breath, dreading what he was about to do.

"Chanyeol, I'm taking away your unit until you can get your shit together."

The room fell silent with shock. This wasn't something that was done, but they also couldn't have unit leaders who were so careless.

He watched as Chanyeol tried to process what he was being told. His tipsy mind trying to take in the seriousness of the situation.

"Who's going to lead his unit?" Jongdae quietly asks.

"We'll do the same thing we did for Kyungsoo and Sehun's units and pass them on to their seconds."

"This is fucking bullshit!" Chanyeol finally explodes.

Junmyeon knew it was a risk taking the last thing Chanyeol really had away from him, but he needed the fiery man to wake up.

"No. What's fucking bullshit is you putting your men's lives at stake because you can't get ahold of yourself. Those men need to be able to rely on you, Chanyeol, and they can't. None of us can."

Chanyeol sits back in disbelief, his eyes blazing with fury. "My brother, my cousin, and now my men. Unbelievable. This is exactly what you wanted, isn't it?"

Junmyeon rubs his forehead, finally letting a little bit of the stress he's been feeling show. "What I want is to be able to rely on you."

Chanyeol abruptly stands up, throwing his chair back in the process. "I'm done here."

"Sit down." Chanyeol scoffs in response and continues for the door. "Fine. I guess you don't care enough to hear about the DNA results that came back."

Chanyeol stops dead in his tracks before coming back and leaning on the wall by his chair.

"First, does anyone have anything they want to say about the unit leader situation?"

"I'm not comfortable with so many new leaders, regardless if they were seconds or not," Jongin admits.

"Until everyone can pull their shit together, we have no choice. When Baekhyun is ready, he'll take over Kyungsoo's unit, and when Chanyeol gets his ass under control, he'll take his unit back."

The men nodded with the plan before Jongdae comments, "So, just Sehun's unit will have a new leader."

Junmyeon paused because he knew once he said that one simple word everything was going to change. Their entire approach was going to change, and hopefully, Chanyeol would come back to them.

"Maybe."

The men stared intently at him as they waited for him to elaborate on what he meant.

"The DNA for the unidentifiable bodies came back, and none of it was a match to Sehun."

The only person who physically responded to his words was you. You sat up in your seat and looked around the room before asking, "What does that mean?"

"That means that Sehun didn't die in the explosion."

"He's alive?" You ask wildly, only for Chanyeol to shoot you down.

"Probably not."

Junmyeon looked over at Chanyeol, noticing the hopeless look written all over his face. Chanyeol wouldn't believe Sehun was alive until he saw him with his own eyes.

"All we know for sure is that he didn't die there." Junmyeon explains to his sister before turning to Chanyeol, "We have no way of knowing what's happened since then. As of right now, he's MIA."

"If he was alive, he'd be here."

"It's possible the Baem have him. I've put out feelers with every single contact I have for any possible information or if there's been any movement from the Baem. The second I hear anything, this turns into a rescue mission."

Chanyeol stared at him as he spoke with a dull expression, and once Junmyeon finished speaking, he says what they all secretly fear, "If the Baem have him, then he's already dead."


	2. Part 2

You knew it! You knew Sehun didn't die in that explosion. Brief relief swept through you at the thought of Sehun still being alive and it took all of your willpower to not bounce in your seat with happiness, but it was quickly crushed by Chanyeol's "he's already dead" attitude.

If the Baem had Sehun, then they had to act quickly before something really bad does happen. Giving up and thinking he was already dead wasn't going to help anyone, especially Sehun.

"While we're on the subject of the Baem..." Junmyeon trails off while looking at you. You knew where he was going with this by the way his eyes slightly narrowed.

Don't you fucking dare, Junmyeon, you angrily think, trying to shove the thought from your head to his.

"Now that we assume Sehun is still alive and most likely being held captive by the Baem, I don't want you to be involved in this anymore, Y/N. It's way more dangerous than we originally anticipated."

"Bullshit," You immediately counter, stealing yourself for the same argument the two of you always seem to have. "It was always dangerous. Nothing has changed. We wanted to destroy the Baem before and now we'll destroy them and get Sehun."

Junmyeon purses his lips before leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. "We don't have time for an argument. I don't want you involved. In fact, I don't even want you sitting at this table right now."

"I don't give a fuck what you want, Junmyeon. You're not the only one with a say. If the other EXO members don't want me involved, then fine, but all you're trying to do is play the big brother role that you're already a decade too late for," You snap at him.

Chanyeol snorts at your response before looking at Junmyeon and standing up from his lean against the wall. "And you tell me I need to get my shit together. How about following your own advice, leader."

As Chanyeol walks out of the room, the sad look on Junmyeon's face immediately makes you want to take back what you said, but you were so sick and tired of having this fight every couple of days that you couldn't do it.

"I'm sorry, Jun, but I'm not going to change my mind... I deserve the chance to avenge mom and dad and also get revenge for myself... and I'm not going to have this argument with you anymore."

Your brother held your stare as he thought out everything silently. He looked around the room at his men and took in their expressions before sighing.

"What do 'the other members of EXO' think?" He asks with a slight edge to his voice.

You inwardly cringe as you realize just how much your words had hurt your brother. That wasn't what you wanted. He was one of the last people you wanted to hurt, but his lack of faith in you hurt you also, so you would continue to stand your ground.

"When Jisoo and Minhyuk died, the Elders took away my right to avenge their deaths, and I still hate them for that to this day..." Baekhyun slowly starts as he stares at the table in front of him. The faded pain still clear in his voice until he shakes it off and looks up at your brother. "You were there with me, Junmyeon. You saw what that did to me. Do you want to do that to your sister?"

Your brother was clearly affected by Baekhyun's words as he thought back to that time. It showed in the way he tilted his head up toward the ceiling, closed his eyes, and clenched his jaw.

"She's already come really far in her training. If she keeps it up, I don't see any reason she shouldn't be involved," Jongin adds his opinion.

Junmyeon nods a little before looking back down at the members and sliding his chair back. "I'll take your opinions into consideration. Meeting dismissed."

You silently watch as he abruptly stands up from his chair and walks out of the room, not sending a single glance your way. When the rest of the members quietly get up and leave without a passing word to each other, you feel a small piece of your heart break.

When you first came here, the group was lively and rambunctious. There was laughter and noise all throughout the day and night, and the near silence that was now a constant in the compound was deafening.

You feel a sudden poke in your arm and look over at Baekhyun, who had apparently stayed behind with you. He searches your eyes trying to figure out what you're feeling.

"What's up?" He finally asks before placing his elbow on the arm of the chair and resting his chin on his hand, waiting to hear your thoughts.

Sighing, you angle your body towards him and lean your head against the back of the seat, feeling completely comfortable with sharing your innermost thoughts with him. "I'm tired of everyone walking around on eggshells. How are they supposed to be a group when they can hardly even communicate?"

"When are you going to learn to not take on everyone else's problems?" He asks you softly.

"Probably never..."

He lets out a small laugh that causes your heart to flutter, and you stiffen. It didn't escape your notice that he was starting to affect you more and more, but you couldn't bring yourself to think about that right now. There was too much going on at the moment.

"How about, for now, you focus on kicking Jongin's ass in training? We'll worry about the rest later."

Sehun's POV

He had fallen into the soldier role well, and as it turns out, he was a quick learner.

The Baem had been giving him small tasks and testing out his abilities in all areas. They discovered he was apparently good with weapons and explosives. Like really good. Like Sehun almost scared himself good.

When the Baem discovered his talent, they kept him strictly with their weapons unit, and the more Sehun played around with things, the more small pieces of his memory came back.

He remembered how to handle wiring and how to build certain explosives, he remembered how to properly care for every gun he came across, and he was remembering other things as well... like his dislike for all the easy girls who were always around and throwing themselves at him. He remembered that he preferred classier girls who respected themselves, and for some reason when he thought of an example, you were the one that flashed into his mind.

All that did was cause him more confusion. Why were you the one that he thought of? Because he had recently seen you? It was just another thing to add to his growing list of questions, and with the memories he gained, that list was getting quite long.

Something else he thought was odd was the fact that he didn't recognize any of his members. As the other things started coming back, he thought memories about his members would come back too, but they weren't. These men still felt completely foreign to him.

On top of that, they consistently kept asking him questions about EXO, and it was really starting to fucking irritate him. How many times did he have to say he couldn't remember? He understood they were their rivals, but they never even asked him questions about the Baem, just EXO.

It almost seemed like they were testing him, but why?

Y/N's POV

It had been a few days since the meeting, and it seemed like the tension in the house had gotten even worse. It felt like you were all waiting for the other shoe to drop, like whatever was holding the last of you together was going to break any day now.

It was almost like everyone was backtracking instead of trying to move on and heal, and things with your brother had not been good at all. Neither of you had attempted any communication since your last argument. Junmyeon would often lock himself in his office and would hardly come out, and you tried to hang out in your room a lot because you were just tired. Tired of all of it.

A quick knock sounded on your door before Jongin peeked in. "Time for training, let's go."

You sigh at the thought of another day of having your ass handed to you, but jump up from your bed and follow him down the hall because you knew this would be the perfect opportunity to ask him about one of the many things that had been on your mind lately.

"Okay, fine, but I want to talk on the way."

Now it was Jongin's turn to sigh because he knew exactly what you wanted to talk about. Minseok.

"I don't regret killing Minseok's father." He immediately says, causing you to slow down your steps and look over at him while he continued. "I'm glad I was the one to do it."

"I wasn't going to ask that..." You slowly say, now completely stopped in the middle of the hallway. "I just wanted to know if the two of you will be okay..."

Jongin awkwardly comes to a stop beside you. "...Oh..."

"What's on your mind, Jongin?"

He turns to face you and searches your eyes almost with a slight panic. "I think there's something wrong with me..."

Your heart jumps a little at his words and how his entire demeanor crumbled before you. The way he broke eye contact and swallowed while looking down the hallway immediately put you on edge.

You knew Jongin was holding in a lot of emotions. He didn't often like to be perceived as "weak" no matter how many times you told him emotions didn't make him weak. Instead, he liked to drown his sadness and pain in girls and alcohol, but you wanted to try to find a way to help him past that, and right now, Jongin was giving you an unusual glimpse into his vulnerability.

"Why do you say that?"

"...Because I felt happiness when I killed him. Relief... You're not supposed to feel happy when you end someone's life, and it's not the first time. I felt the same way about my stepdad."

Everything Jongin was saying made sense. In a normal world, killing people was a horrific, atrocious thing, but in the mafia world... nobody was really a "good guy". They all did horrible things, and no, you weren't trying to justify murder. You knew things weren't so black and white, but those two were bad men.

"Jongin, they were shit people who did horrible things, it's not wrong to feel relief that they're gone." You tell him, but the look of doubt is clear on his face. "I don't think anything is wrong with you... I'd be happy if I were in your position too."

He raises his eyebrows at your statement before saying, "Maybe there's something wrong with you too."

His words cause you to pause in thought until you finally shrug, "Well, then we'll be fucked up together."

He shakes his head at you, but a small smile does find its way onto his face, and that was literally all you cared about at the moment.

As the two of you start to walk down to the training room again, he asks, "Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Are you avoiding Minseok because of what you just told me?"

He avoids looking at you and continues quietly walking down the hallway for a moment before answering. "Partly... I thought it'd be good to give him space. I took away his last living parent... How can you forgive someone for that?"

You couldn't respond to his question, because you didn't know the answer yourself. Would you be able to forgive Jongin if you were in Minseok's position? It was hard to put yourself in those shoes because you knew, one way or another, Minseok's father was never going to leave that room. Whether it be by Jongin's hand, your brother's, or your own.

All you knew was that it was something the two of them would have to work out themselves, and you were worried about what would happen if they let this go on for too long. "You need to talk to him before it's too late..."

He thinks about your words for the rest of the walk but remains silent until the two of you walk into the training room, where your eyes immediately find Baekhyun waiting there. You would be lying if you said a thrill didn't go through your entire body at the sight of him.

"Are you joining us today?" Jongin asks with clear amusement.

You're silent as you watch Baekhyun walk up to the two of you with a swagger you've only ever seen him pull off. You shake your head at the thought, immediately annoyed with yourself for thinking someone's walk was sexy.

"Oh, I'll be here every day until she kicks your ass," Baekhyun replies with a smirk that you force yourself to ignore.

His words and belief in you, however, gave you the motivation you needed to train, and for the next hour, the three of you warm-up and take turns sparring with each other. You could feel yourself getting stronger, compared to how you were before the training started, and the thought made you giddy with adrenaline. You were becoming a badass person, and damn, it was exciting.

"Kai hyung," A voice calls from the entrance of the training room, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's an issue at the club."

Jongin drops his fighting stance and sighs as he looks over at the younger man who you have never seen before. "Which one?"

"The one we just acquired, sir."

Jongin swore before following the younger man out of the training room. You turn to Baekhyun in confusion.

"Who was that, and what club is he talking about?"

"Someone in Jongin's unit," He answers while slowly circling you, "They just bought a ...gentleman's club."

You turn your body with him as he watches your movements, looking for a place to attack, but your mind was already elsewhere.

"You guys own strip clubs too?"

"We dabble in a little bit of everything. Casinos, dealerships, strip clubs... Why do you sound so surprised?"

Why were you surprised? Jongin was one of the most sexual beings you knew. It made perfect sense for him to run the strip clubs.

Suddenly, you feel a jab in your left arm as Baekhyun takes a hit at you and circles around behind you. You quickly turn and catch the smirk still on his face.

He raises an eyebrow at the taken aback look on your face and asks, "You thought you were done training because your teacher left?"

Your throat suddenly dries up at the sight of him. The raised eyebrow, the smirk, his sweaty naked torso, his eyes as they looked over your body, searching for a hint of your next move. It was a sensation overload. Pair that with the previous conversation of strip clubs, and your mind almost went blank.

Focus. You needed to focus. Forget about the stupidly attractive, oddly caring guy in front of you and put your opponent on his fucking ass.

You studied his movements for a moment, the way his body leaned, and the direction his feet were facing before making your move.

You tried to make all of your movements seamless and fast, but Baekhyun was still able to track them and quickly blocked the punch you threw at him. Your next thought was to aim a high kick toward his side, but he caught your leg mid-air and held it still.

You hopped around as you tried to balance on one foot and met his stare. You were shocked to find heat in his gaze, and suddenly, the position you were in seemed way too intimate for sparring.

"Can I have my leg back?" You breathlessly ask.

Baekhyun slowly looks down at your leg, like he didn't even realize he still held it, before quickly dropping it, shaking his arms out, and rolling his neck around.

The two of you backed away and sized each other up. You had yet to take Baekhyun down, and suddenly, you were very determined to do it tonight. The tension in your body would only be settled when one of you was on your back.

He takes a step toward you, and you step back in response, maintaining the same distance between you, and when he brings his arm back to strike, you dodge. Unfortunately, you were too late to realize it was a trick, and his leg was able to snake out and swipe you off your feet.

The panic came, just like it always did when you fell, and you grab his arm in a death grip on your way down. His body, not expecting the extra weight of another person, gave out, and he landed directly on top of you.

You both let out a small noise as your bodies smack into each other and then lay there for a second as you both try to figure out what just happened. Finally, the situation registers in your mind. Byun Baekhyun, a member of the deadly EXO and the guy you were stupidly attracted to, was laying on top of you.

Your heart was hammering in your chest, and you knew he could feel it because you could feel his beating erratically too. Both of you were already breathing heavily from the sparring, but the way his body molded around yours almost stole all your breath entirely. You could feel the strength of his body against the softness of yours, and it sent your mind into a wild frenzy.

As he leans his weight onto one of his arms so he wouldn't crush you, you search his eyes and let out a small gasp when you see the hunger in them. The noise draws his eyes down to your lips, and his tongue slips out to wet his own.

His gaze bounces between yours and your lips, searching for something, an answer or permission maybe, before he slowly lowers his head and claims your lips with his own. It was gentle and light at first, and the softness of his lips causes your remaining breath to disappear, but when you open your mouth and let him in, the kiss quickly turns more passionate.

His kiss sent an explosion of bright, colorful lights through your head, and it was enough to make you dizzy. His tongue slid into your mouth and quickly began teasing yours, and you couldn't get enough of it. You tilt your head to the side, and he quickly deepens the kiss as his free hand slowly slides down the side of your body.

Everything felt right all of a sudden. Kissing Baekhyun made you feel like everything would be okay in the end. It made you feel like your head was going to explode, but you welcomed it because if this was how you were going out, you had absolutely zero complaints.

After a while, he slowly pulls away, but not before leaving one more soft kiss on your tingling lips. You gradually open your eyes, and the two of you stare at each other in amazement. You were never the romantic or fairy tale type of girl, and you never believed that people were made for each other, but with Baekhyun, you wanted to be.

A noise across the room breaks the spell the two of you had fallen under and the mumbled words of an apology have both of your eyes widening.

The two of you look over at the source of the noise and see a flustered young man still apologizing and looking everywhere but at the two of you. You had no idea who he was, but you assumed he was another member in one of the guys' units.

The thought was confirmed when Baekhyun quickly scrambles off of you. You search his face to get an idea of how he's feeling, and a small flash of hurt and confusion goes through you when you see the spooked out look on it.

Was he worried about the younger man telling someone? Your brother, maybe? Was it something else entirely? Did he... did he regret kissing you?

Before you could get any of these questions out, Baekhyun excuses himself and quickly takes off toward the exit, leaving you laying there all alone.


	3. Part 3

Baekhyun's POV

Fuck. Fuck. This is not good.

To say that Baekhyun was two seconds away from freaking the hell out was an understatement. There were so many thoughts running through his mind that he had a hard time grasping one and focusing on it.

In the midst of all these thoughts, he had made it up to his bedroom without any recollection of hallways or stairs. He had been in complete autopilot mode.

Now that he was in the safety of his own room, he found his way over to the end of his bed and dropped down onto it. Closing his eyes, he forced himself to breathe in through his nostrils and out of his mouth to calm down.

What the hell had he just done?

"Fuck." He says out loud to absolutely nobody before dropping his head into his hands.

All he could think about was you. Your blinding smile. Your melodious laugh. Your beautiful lips moving against his, and how it took everything he had in him to stop kissing you. He could've stayed down there in that training room with you for hours, and the thought terrified him. That was when reality slammed into him.

He was falling in love with you.

It wasn't just a giant crush or heavy lust. No, Baekhyun was completely falling for you. Your courage enticed him. Your wit impressed him. Your compassion floored him. Everything about you drew him to you like a moth to a flame.

What scared him was that he would happily burn in your brightness.

This realization came with a whole slew of problems. One is that you were his leader’s little sister. The man that Baekhyun had risked his life for time and time again. The one who was there for him after the death of his sister and Minhyuk. Junmyeon would kill any of them for even entertaining the idea of being with you, but that wasn't what Baekhyun was truly afraid of.

After the deaths of Jisoo and Minhyuk, Baekhyun swore he would never be with someone involved in the mafia world. Ever.

He never wanted to constantly worry about the person he loves not coming home or have his partner worry about it either. The constant hoping and praying that one of them wasn't killed in this lifestyle... He didn't want that.

He didn't want a repeat of what happened with his sister and Minhyuk. It would absolutely destroy him if someone were able to hold his relationship over his head and use it against him in any type of way.

Which meant there was only one thing to do.

He'd have to fight his feelings for you and put as much distance between the two of you as possible.

The thought almost brought him to his knees, because it was the absolute last thing he wanted to do, but, as of right now, it was what we had to do.

A loud pounding sounded on his door, jolting Baekhyun from his thoughts before he heard Chanyeol's slurred, demanding voice on the other side of it.

"Let's go to the club!"

Baekhyun squeezes his eyes shut, irritated with having to constantly watch an adult act like a child, and knowing it might be a little fucked up in regards to his situation with you, he says okay.

Y/N'S POV

You don't know how long you sat on the training room floor after Baekhyun had kissed you and ran, but it was long enough for your butt to go numb. You had replayed the kiss in your mind an embarrassing amount of times. You couldn't help but remember the way your bodies had fit together like they were made for each other, and you also couldn't get over the intense feelings you were experiencing.

The kiss confirmed what you had been denying in your mind for a while now, and there was no use in denying it anymore. You were falling for Baekhyun.

There was no one else like him in this world, and you think a part of you knew that when you first met him. Beneath his carefree and reckless exterior was a surprisingly caring, gentle man. His personality lit up a room and drew everyone to him, and that was rare in the mafia world. His ability to make you laugh when you wanted to cry, his willingness to drop everything and come to you when you need him, and his thoughtfulness were all very endearing qualities to you. You cherished them because they were things that nobody had ever given you before.

You jump up from your sitting position and set out to find Baekhyun. The two of you needed to talk about what just happened. You needed to know how he was feeling after he almost tripped over his own feet to get away from the situation.

As you walk past the living room, a figure on the couch catches your attention. You stop mid-stride as you try to see who it is and realize it's Yixing staring off into space with a lost look on his face.

A weird feeling starts pressing on you as you think back to every time you've seen Yixing lately. A lost or sad look was always present on his once smiling face, and that's when you decide you'll find Baekhyun later because right now, your friend needs you.

You move into the living room, and Yixing doesn't even notice you until you plop down onto the couch next to him, and he jumps in surprise.

"You must be doing really well in training. We might even have to put a bell on you soon."

"Or maybe you're losing your skills, Xing," you joke back.

A dark expression crosses his face, and it startles you. This was a look that you had never seen grace his handsome features before, and it made your stomach turn with worry.

"Yixing?"

Your voice snaps him out of whatever dark place he was visiting, and he looks down at his lap and lets out a weak laugh. The sight sent chills down your arms.

"What's going on, Yixing?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." He tries to convince you with a fake smile.

You keep your face as blank as possible, letting him know you weren't falling for whatever act he was playing. "Seriously, Yixing. What's happening right now? You're starting to scare me."

His eyes droop, and he sighs before he looks back down at his hands in his lap and fiddles with them.

"I'm struggling..." He quietly admits. "He was the first one..."

Furrowing your brows in confusion, you try to keep up with his half sentences, but he was speaking quieter and quieter. He was the first one? Who was the first one what? Then, it finally dawns on you.

"Kyungsoo?"

He wordlessly nods while he tries to keep his composure. You rub his arm and wait for him to let out all the feelings he's kept bottled up for over a month, and it's not long before he does.

"He was the first person I've lost..." He looks over at you with tears in his eyes that quickly spill down his cheeks. "He was my brother, and I wasn't able to save him..."

At that moment, he finally let himself break. He collapses down onto his lap as sobs wracked through his body, and all you could do was rub his back as he let it out. Your throat burned, and your eyes stung with unshed tears as you wrapped your body around his quivering form.

There was nothing you could say that would take away his pain and hurt and make him feel better, but it wasn't in your nature not to try.

"It's not your fault... I know, without a doubt, that you did everything you could've done to save him."

"But it wasn't enough."

"That's still not your fault."

You feel him starting to lean back, so you move back and wait. He sits up and looks at you with an incredulous look.

"How can you say that?"

"Do you blame Sehun for building that bomb or placing it in that warehouse?"

"No, but that's different."

You could sense his frustration building, but you needed him to see that he wasn't at fault. "How so?"

"It just is."

The both of you went silent for a moment, letting your own thoughts consume you, before Yixing says something that makes you turn your head so fast, you were momentarily worried you gave yourself whiplash.

"I don't know if I should be here anymore..."

"Excuse me?"

He takes in your worried face and shakes his head. "Not like that... I just... don't know if I should stay with EXO... Or if I'm even wanted here anymore..."

You feel your eyes nearly bulge out of your head. "Of course you're wanted here! You can't leave. Yixing, these guys love you. We all love you. There's no way in hell any of us want you gone."

You feel your heart begin to race the more worked up you get about it. Just the thought of Yixing leaving, especially after Kyungsoo and Sehun were gone, was unacceptable to you right now, and the way Yixing was looking away from you and staying quiet was causing you to worry even more.

"Yixing, do you hear me?"

It takes a moment before he finally nods, causing you to sigh with relief, though a part of you knows that this wasn't the end of the conversation. Just you saying something is not going to solve anything. You needed to tell your brother how Yixing was feeling. Maybe there was a way they dealt with this sort of thing, or maybe your brother would know how to reach Yixing better than you could.

"I feel like I let EXO down."

You can't help but let your mouth fall open over the fact that Yixing was feeling all of these things. "There's no way you would ever let EXO down. You're their brother. They care about you. No matter what. Please never doubt that."

The two of you fall into a thoughtful silence as you run thoughts and feelings through your head. You knew Yixing was struggling, they all were, but it didn't dawn on you just how hard Yixing would take Kyungsoo's death. Not only as a friend and brother but as a medical professional who lost his first patient. That was something you couldn't really understand unless you've gone through it.

After a while, Yixing finally turns to you with a curious expression. "What were you up to before this? Aren't you usually in training right now?"

"Oh... um... Jongin had to take care of something, so I was looking for Baekhyun..."

Yixing made an uncomfortable face before rubbing the back of his neck. "He went out with Chanyeol..."

The beginning feelings of dread start to coil in your stomach. Chanyeol only cared about two things these days, getting fucked and getting fucked up, and the guy you just realized you liked went out with him... After nearly tripping over his own feet to get away from you...

Maybe... maybe you read the situation wrong... Maybe Baekhyun's not as into you as you thought he was...

"Do you know where?" You quietly ask.

"Strip club, bar," Yixing shrugs his shoulders. "Take your pick."

Sehun's POV

"When you connect it like this, the activation time shortens by roughly seven seconds."

Sehun nods his head as he listens to Jaesuk explain to him how he built one of their newest weapons. The man he had befriended was the Baem's "weapon expert", and Minho thought it'd be a good idea to pair Sehun up with him since he was showing so much "potential".

Sehun was beginning to think they were all full of bullshit. How would he have been a member for, apparently, years, and they didn't know how great he was with weapons? It made zero sense that they wouldn't know of his skillset, but he played along because what the hell else was he supposed to do?

His memories were slowly trickling back, being triggered by moments and things that felt familiar to him, but he couldn't go out there into the city and try to hide from the Baem. He would be like a wandering, lost puppy.

It also struck him to the core that he knew, with every fiber of his being, if he left, the Baem would come after him, and that sent his already shot nerves into hyperdrive.

From the corner of his eye, Sehun saw someone walking past them, but he ignored them until a flash of red had him shooting straight up, causing Jaesuk to stop midsentence.

"You good?"

He hears Jaesuk's question, but he ignores it as he searches for the color that set alarms off in his head. Off to his right, walking out of the warehouse he was in, was a man with fiery red hair and Sehun felt compelled to go after him, so that's what he did.

Leaving Jaesuk, who kept asking him what was wrong, behind, Sehun takes off after the man who had exited the warehouse and begins to follow him down the empty, white hallway. It was only when he was halfway down the hallway did he realize it was one he was told not to go down, but there was no stopping him.

The flash of familiarity and sense of safety he felt when he saw that red hair was something he hadn't experienced since he lost his memories, and he would be damned if he didn't go after it. It also didn't escape his notice that the only person he's ever seen with this color hair was a member of EXO.

The man made another turn ahead of him, and Sehun sped up to a jog, so he wouldn't lose him, but this place was filled with so many twists and turns that he lost him around the corner anyways.

Sehun resisted the urge to cuss out loud because he was in a restricted area, but he knew he would make a sailor proud with the words that were flowing through his head. Now that he lost the guy, he had two options. He could either turn around and go back to Jaesuk before he got in trouble or he could keep going and take a chance on getting caught, but before he could choose, he overheard voices carrying from down that hall.

"Any moves yet?"

The question was followed with a snort, and even though he knew he should hide, Sehun found himself frozen in place.

"Please. EXO lost two of their members. Add the sister in there, and they're spiraling into chaos. They'll fall apart all on their own. All we have to do is sit back and watch."

"That's not enough for me. I want to take them down. I want to crush them myself."

"Well, we've got the kid. What do you want to do with him?"

The kid? Who was the kid? Him? Sehun didn't even recognize the voices talking, so why would they be talking about him?

"We'll keep waiting until he shows some sign of his memories coming back and then see whatever information we can get out of him."

"Then what? When he gets his memories back, he's not going to cooperate."

Oh. He was definitely the kid. He holds his breath and tries to catch their words better.

"We'll kill him before he becomes a problem."

Sehun freezes for a moment because there was only one person they could be talking about, and he was currently overhearing their conversation.

They were going to kill him... but why kill one of their own "members"? Also, what information were they trying to get out of him?

"What if EXO finds out we have him first?"

His mind was reeling from information overload. Why would EXO care about him? How was he connected to them?

All of his instincts were screaming at him that he shouldn't be here. He wasn't safe, and the people who claimed to be his allies planned on killing him once they got what they wanted from him.

He needed to find a way out. He had to escape from the Baem, and why did he know, without a shadow of a doubt, that EXO would be his ticket out of here?

Y/N's POV

You didn't even know how much time had passed between Yixing leaving and Jongdae finding you, but it was enough time that the sky you had been watching went from a dusky blue to a pitch black.

Your mind had traveled all over, jumping from various thoughts about everything and nothing, and you were almost relaxed.

Looking out into the treeline in the backyard has been something that has brought comfort to you ever since you first came into this house. There was always something calming about nature for you, and you were able to pull strength from it.

However, as soon as you heard Jongdae's voice, your peace was shattered, and a thought crept into your mind.

The weird feeling you got during Kyungsoo's memorial... The feeling of being watched by someone...

At the time, you had meant to bring it up, but there was so much going on that it slipped your mind. You had been so angry at your brother that night, and Jongdae was so broken over the loss of his best friend that you thought it could wait. Then you started training every day, and you forgot all about it.

If you brought it up now, your brother would be livid you never spoke up.

"Yo, Earth to Y/N. Are you ready to train or what?"

You respond to Jongdae and follow him towards his security cave that he practically lived in. The two of you had begun conversing when the front door you were walking past was thrown open, startling you.

Jongdae was quick to grab his gun and have it aimed at whoever was coming through, but he slowly lets it drop once you both realize who was stumbling into the place.

Baekhyun and Chanyeol.

Both men had clearly consumed alcohol, but while Baekhyun was pulling himself together, Chanyeol was completely gutted.

Jongdae and you silently watch as Baekhyun attempts to drag Chanyeol towards the stairs with clear difficulty, neither of you were willing to help them as this scene was so common now. As Baekhyun passes you, he flashes you a quick smile that does little to calm the nerves that immediately crept up the moment you saw him.

After Jongdae was done muttering expletives about Chanyeol, he motions for you to follow him, but a whiff of perfume leaves you rooted to the floor. Slowly, you look up at the two men currently struggling to get up the stairs, knowing they were the reason you were smelling a feminine scent that wasn't your own.

A sick feeling creeps into your stomach as you think about Baekhyun having another girl all over him after kissing you mere hours ago, but you try to snap yourself out of it. You and Baekhyun weren't together. You were... well, you were confused about what you were, but you weren't in a relationship, so you couldn't really get mad, right?

Jongdae repeats your name, and when you finally look over at him, he asks if you're okay. With a nod, you follow him down to his security room and try to forget about what just happened.

As you walk into his cave, you quickly take in the messiness of it and furrow your brows in concern. Jongdae was not a messy person, and his bedroom and security room were both extremely clean places, so the clothes thrown over the computer monitors and trash that littered the desks and floor were completely out of character.

It didn't take a genius to figure out he was falling apart after losing his best friend, and that was when you realize you haven't been a very good friend to him. When was the last time you've even seen Jongdae?

Jongdae falls into his normal seat, while you turn to another one and remove the clothes sitting on it, so you can sit down. He turns to face the cameras and ignores your questioning stare, but if you were going to sit in here for the next couple of hours, you were going to get him to talk.

"How have you been?"

He had noticed you surveying the room when you entered, so he knew your question wasn't the generic "how are you"?

"I'm not going to break."

"I know that..." You respond to his nonanswer before trailing off.

You continue to stare at him, hoping he'll open up at least a little bit, but he just rolls his eyes at you in response.

"You're not going to get any sappy shit from me, so come on, let me teach you what you need to know."

You decide to let it go for now, but while Jongdae was teaching you how to find information on a person's history, i.e. hack into government databases, your mind kept wandering off. Not because of boredom, but because your mind wanted to focus on so many other things, like Baekhyun, the kiss, the perfume, the weird feeling of being watched, the fight with your brother, everything besides what Jongdae was showing you.

He leans back in his chair and sighs. "You're not even paying attention to me."

"I'm sorry..." You tell him, seeing the clear frustration on his face.

He turns his chair to face you and then leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees. He searches your face while twiddling his thumbs before finally asking, "What's going on? Why can't you focus?"

"You're not going to get any sappy shit from me." You throw his excuse back at him, and that was the moment you realized you were good at making Jongdae roll his eyes.

"How long do you keep the camera recordings?" You quietly ask, knowing you have to give him something because there was no way he was going to let you get away with not paying attention to your training.

He sits up from his slouched position, immediately suspicious, so you reluctantly tell him about the weird feeling you got at the memorial.

You can see the anger and disbelief grow on his face as you tell him something that you never meant to keep secret. The more on edge he became, the more you tried to sink into your chair and let it swallow you whole. You fucked up. Big time.

"How the fuck did you not say anything?!" He shouts at you.

"I thought I might've been paranoid..." You mumble, causing him to let out a small, angry laugh at your foolishness.

"Haven't you heard the saying 'it's not paranoia if someone is actually out to get you'?"

He shakes his head at you before moving to sit in front of the main computer. His fingers fly over the keyboard as he searches for the camera files from the date of the memorial. You silently watch because you knew your mistake of being quiet could've been deadly for all of you.

When he finds the exact date, he pulls up the cameras for the backyard. You sit up in surprise because you didn't even know half of these cameras existed. They were hidden so well.

"Where?"

You get close to the monitors and examine the images. Half of them looked the same to you since the backyard was surrounded by trees. When you were pretty sure you found the right camera, Jongdae enlarges the screen, and the two of you hold your breath as you watch the video.

At first, you see nothing out of the ordinary, just unmoving trees, but then a shadow appears in between two big pine trees. It never breaks the treeline, but it was very clearly a humanoid shape.

Jongdae leans back into his seat and lets out a "holy shit", while your eyes remain glued to the image. Your instincts were right. Someone had been watching you.


	4. Part 4

"How many times have you been told to trust your instincts?" Jongdae asks, his voice dripping with anger and disappointment.

You continue to stare at the shadowed image in front of you and refuse to turn around to witness the emotions on Jongdae's face. You knew you had messed up, and you knew there would be consequences for your actions, which is why you were rooted in your place.

The thought of having to tell your brother, the leader of one of the most powerful mafia families in Korea, that you not only withheld important information but also jeopardized his and his men's safety had you wanting to dig a hole and lay in the fetal position inside of it for the rest of time.

"I know you didn't go deaf in the last minute, so answer me." Jongdae's frustrated voice sounds from behind you.

"I know I messed up, Jongdae," you whisper, trying to find your voice. "Believe me, I know."

He sighs, either not knowing what to tell you or not knowing what to do with you. "You know you need to go tell your brother, right? Just like you know he's going to be absolutely livid?"

You silently nod and finally find the courage to turn and face Jongdae. He masked his emotions well, but you could see the pity fighting its way onto his face. You knew no man envied what you were about to do.

Taking a deep breath, you attempt to prepare yourself for what's to come, but leaving the safety of the security room takes all of the strength you have, and following the echos of EXO's voices ends up being even harder.

Before you know it, you're outside of the kitchen, which is where their voices led you, and you're surprised to find all of the members, minus Chanyeol, hanging out along the counters and table.

Jongin was the first one to spot you, and a smile quickly brightens up his face. "What's up, princess?"

Not even the annoying nickname he gave you was able to shake the overwhelming fear beginning to crawl up your back. The sight of your already-unhappy-with-you brother almost made you want to vomit.

The look on your face must've given you away because whatever light atmosphere they had going on was suddenly thick with tension. The lighthearted expressions on their faces quickly morphed into serious ones. They knew something was wrong.

"I messed up..." you shakily say, meeting Junmyeon's blank face, before explaining to them about what you had felt at the memorial and the evidence you and Jongdae found.

It was just like when you told Jongdae, except there were five of him, and one of them was your brother, who looked like he wanted to choke the life out of you. Their expressions ranged from anger to disappointment, and you couldn't explain the weird grief that brought you. You knew, in your head, you had breached their trust, but the expressions on their faces made you truly feel it.

The noise of a chair scraping across the floor brought chills up and down your near trembling arms, and you meet your brother's eyes as his chair slams into the ground with a loud smack. The sound makes you jump, but the intense anger in his eyes has you quickly looking down at the kitchen tile.

The sound his boots make as he stomps over to you in the doorway has your heart racing. To avoid his face, you keep your eyes carefully trained on the floor.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you be a part of this. You can't handle this world." Junmyeon growls, his voice shaking with anger.

As he leaves the kitchen, you feel the energy drain from you. This was what you expected to happen, and truthfully, you got off way easier than you thought you would, so far.

As the rest of the men quietly process what it means that you were being watched, Jongin tries to comfort you and probably, in a small way, the other men.

"Hey. What's done is done. Try not to dwell on it."

You give him a small nod as you continue to stare at the floor, which pulls out a loud sigh from him.

"You weren't even training back then. You didn't realize the severity of it, but now you do. You've been working your ass off to prove what you can do, and you could probably even kick Junmyeon's ass right now, so learn from this, then put it behind you and try to move on."

Finally, you look up at Jongin's face, and he tries to give you a reassuring smile. He was right... in a way. You should've said something back then, but now you know to never make that mistake again.

Minseok slowly pulls himself up from his seat and begins to leave the kitchen, drawing Jongin's attention to him.

"Make sure the leader doesn't let his emotions cloud his judgment."

Your eyes bounce between the two members as you realize these are the first words Jongin has spoken to Minseok in over a month. The moment was almost enough to distract you from your current issue.

You, Baekhyun, and Yixing all silently watch as Minseok processes Jongin's words before nodding his agreement and walking out without a backward glance at Jongin. Jongin stares at Minseok's retreating back, and a small piece of hope blooms in you that maybe the pair were finally getting ready to work out their problems.

When you turn to leave and go hide in your room, you hear quick footsteps behind you. Before you can look, you feel a hand tug gently at your arm and effectively turn you around.

Suddenly, you're pulled into strong arms, and your face is pushed up against a warm chest. Without even looking up, you knew it was Baekhyun who had pulled you into his arms. The smell of his shampoo and cologne was something you had grown fond of.

A small part of you that you really wanted to ignore at the moment was happy that it was his scent you were smelling and not the perfume he came home wearing. An even bigger part of you was happy to be in the safety of his arms.

"You look like you needed a hug..."

You nod into his chest and wrap your arms around his small waist so that he can't go anywhere just yet.

The two of you silently hold each other as thoughts race in your heads. Being in Baekhyun's arms was almost enough to distract you from all of the problems you currently face. The thought of leaving his embrace and letting those issues back in made you hold him even tighter.

"I'm sorry I never said anything..." You mumble into his shirt.

"Don't worry about that right now... You made a mistake... I'm not going to hold that against you."

You're quiet for a moment while you gather up the courage to ask him about the kiss. "If you don't want me to worry about that right now... then can we talk about earlier?"

His body stiffens in your arms, and your heart slowly starts to sink. Everything in you knew he was going to put the conversation off.

"We should... We need to... but, right now, I think we should prepare for what your brother is about to do."

Suho's POV

He was seething as he paced the length of the security room. How could you be so stupid to hide a breach of security from them?! They all could've been murdered! Junmyeon knew you were raised better than that. Even if dad kept you away from the mafia world as much as he could, you knew simple common sense stuff. He just didn't understand.

"You couldn't make out anything other than a shadow from the video?"

"No..." Jongdae murmurs while messing with the image. "They knew where the cameras were and knew how to avoid them."

"So we have absolutely zero information besides a fucking shadow?" Junmyeon asks, making a turn to continue his pacing.

"We have nothing."

Frustration courses through him, and he lashes out by kicking one of the rolling chairs he passes, causing Jongdae to roll his eyes.

"Be mad all you want, but don't take it out on my chairs."

Junmyeon pauses midstep and turns to give Jongdae an incredulous look. How could he be so lax about this? He should be just as pissed that someone was able to bypass his security set up and get that close to the house.

"She made a mistake."

"Mistakes cost people their lives." Junmyeon throws out, already tired of the excuses he was going to hear from the other members in your defense.

A presence comes up behind him before Jongdae can respond and he knows without looking its Minseok, who was probably coming to calm him down.  
Minseok asks Jongdae to show him the footage while Junmyeon continues his pacing. He was so frustrated and angry. Over the years, they had some close calls as a group, but he'd never had someone just waltz into his fucking backyard unnoticed.

They could've been ambushed, and every single one of them could've lost their lives, and that got to him more than he knew it would. Since Junmyeon had taken over, there had never been any close calls, and to think it was his sister that they could've taken out? Ugh, he wanted to fucking scream, but he knew he was just continuously working himself up.

"You know, she wasn't even in training when this happened... She would know what to do now..." Minseok casually says while he studies the screen.

"She's the daughter of a mafia leader. She knew what she should've done."

"She had also just been kidnapped and held hostage, and when we went to save her, we lost two of our brothers. We're all mentally mindfucked from that."

Junmyeon ignores Minseok's level headed words and continues his pacing until Minseok spoke his next words, which had him stopping in surprise.

"Jongin says - "

"You talked to Jongin?" He quickly turns to face the older man.

When Minseok looked away, he knew he had his answer. Junmyeon took a deep breath and stared at the wall in front of him. How could he expect you to speak up when the men around you continuously hid all of their thoughts and feelings?

"Get everyone in the living room in ten minutes, and that includes drunk ass Chanyeol."

"The living room?" Jongdae asks as he and Minseok share a bewildered look.

Calling a serious meeting to be held in the living room was not something that Junmyeon did, but clearly what he was doing wasn't working and he needed a new approach.

Y/N's POV

You nervously head to the living room like Minseok had instructed you to do, but you could come up with 100 other places that you'd rather be. You had a feeling you knew what was coming, and as much as you wanted to avoid it, you were completely ready to fight for yourself if you needed to.

You turn the corner to see that everyone else is already there, and they all shared the same expression of wanting to be anywhere else rather than here. You quickly take the one open seat left on the couch and avoid your brother's stare.

"Now that everyone is here, why don't you tell us what your thought process was?" Junmyeon starts out.

You knew he was talking to you, but you couldn't bring yourself to look up from your hands on your lap. The weight of everyone's stares was beginning to feel suffocating, and you could feel yourself starting to breathe funny.

A hand patted your thigh, and your eyes traveled up the arm of the man sitting next to you to find Yixing, who you hadn't even realized you sat next to. He flashed you a small smile and gave you a slight nod. Swallowing, you finally look over at your brother, who was staring at you with a blank expression.

"If it was my imagination or paranoia, then everyone would've been freaking out over nothing, and I didn't want to run Kyungsoo's day because of that..."

"Someone could've shot you point-blank on the spot, you know that right? You could be dead right now."

From the corner of your eye, you see Baekhyun turn his head away from the rest of the group as he took in your brother's words. Even from across the room, you could see his jaw clenching at the thought of you being killed.

"We could all be dead." Your brother's words recapture your attention.

"I know... I'm sorry... I know I fucked up."

"As much as I detest the idea of you being involved in this life, and as much as I want to end your training sessions immediately, I won't. Not only because I've been informed by multiple people that would be a mistake, but because I know they're right. It's good for you to know how to protect yourself; however, this is your only chance to prove them right. I love you with everything in me, but I can't, and I won't risk the safety of my men. They've sworn their lives to me, risked them for me, and I do not take that lightly."

You silently nod because all you could feel was relief and shock. You thought this would end in another shouting match between you and your brother. You thought you would have to continue to fight for your right to be in this life, but your brother and his members were giving you another chance, and you had zero plans of letting them down again.

Chanyeol stumbles up from his seated position by the fireplace, causing all of the attention to shift onto him.

"Sit down." Junymeon firmly says.

Chanyeol lets out an amused scoff. "Why?"

"Because we need to talk about you and how you're always drunk or high. We need to talk about why Minseok and Jongin can't even look at each other. We need to talk about the fact that Jongdae and Yixing are breaking down right in front of our eyes, and we need to fix ourselves as a group, before we fall apart anymore," your brother snaps.

Everyone either looked at Junmyeon with wide eyes or avoided him altogether. None of you had been expecting this...

Chanyeol lets out an obnoxious laugh that makes a sick feeling immediately appear in your stomach. It was such a careless, lost, and hate-filled sound, and you hated that it was coming from him.

"You want to kumbaya? You want us all to hold each other's hands and talk about our feelings? I'll pass." Chanyeol condescendingly replies, walking out of the room without a backward glance.

It was almost like you could feel your heart breaking whenever you looked at Chanyeol. It hurt to see him turn into something he's not, but the only way to save him from this dark path was to find Sehun.

Baekhyun suddenly stands up and walks past all of you without a word. He didn't even bother to look at anyone on his way out of the living room, not even you.

For months, Baekhyun was the only person here who you understood. You could almost always tell his thoughts and feelings on something just by listening to his words and observing his actions, but now you had no idea what was going on in his head. He kisses you and then runs away. He hugs you tightly and then avoids talking about whatever was between the two of you. Even now, his jaw clenching at the mention of you dying, but then he leaves the room without even a flick of a glance your way.

The sounds of movement pull you from your thoughts, and you look around to see the rest of the men standing up. Guess it would make sense that the meeting was over since two of the members abandoned it.

"Minseok..." Jongin's quiet voice silences the room. "Do you think we can talk?"

His quiet question seemed so much louder than it was, and it causes all of you to pause your actions for a moment. Yixing and Jongdae crept out of the room while your brother looks over at the youngest in surprise.

Jongin's face held so much hope and vulnerability, but you could also see the fear lingering just below the surface. You knew, as much as he tried to hide it, that Jongin was terrified of losing, or being abandoned by, his brothers.

Minseok, on the other hand, looked regretful and ashamed. Ashamed for letting his younger brother end his father's life when he couldn't, but he knew he couldn't avoid this conversation anymore, so he croaks out a "yes".

A tap on your shoulder has you pulling your gaze from the pair and looking up at Junmyeon, who inclines his head toward the hallway. You nod and get up to give the two of them privacy, but as soon as you turn away, you hear your name and "wait" coming from two distinct voices.

You turn to see Minseok and Jongin both silently pleading with you to stay. Their eyes were wide and slightly panicked at the thought of having to have a deep one-on-one discussion like this without a witness.

"Will you stay?"


	5. Part 5

"Will you stay?" Jongin asks, his eyes wide and unsure.

You look back and forth between the two men before nodding your head. A relieved breath escapes from Minseok, and he lets out a small, breathy laugh once he realizes what he did.

Both of the men were so nervous that it was starting to make you nervous. You didn't know what to do with yourself, so you turn back to the seat you were originally in and slowly sink back down onto the cushion. The men take note of your action and move to do the same.

Once all three of you were seated, you looked between the pair and waited to see who would make the first move. Judging by their actions, you had a feeling you would be here for a while. Minseok was looking off to the side at a gaudy abstract painting that you've tried to get your brother to replace multiple times, while Jongin was looking at his enclosed hands where he was twiddling his thumbs.

You waited a couple minutes, debating if maybe you should say something or just sit here quietly, and thankfully, Jongin makes that decision for you. The younger man takes a breath causing Minseok to slowly look over at him.

"I don't know if I should apologize or not... because I'm not sorry for what I did. We all knew it had to be done... but I am sorry for taking your father from you."

Minseok looks down at his lap and shakes his head. "You don't have to apologize."

"I'm glad that I was the one to do it. I didn't want you to share the same fate as me. I guess, in a way, I was trying to save you from as much pain as I could. I didn't want you to have to live with the demons that come when you take the life of someone close to you because, believe me, even if he was the biggest asshole on Earth, they still come..."

Jongin's words have Minseok's head snapping up to look at him. His mouth slightly parted in shock and pity at what Jongin had been hiding from his brothers.

Sure, they knew he had dealt with some issues after killing his stepfather, anyone would, but you knew Jongin hid the worst of it from them. That's how he was. He didn't want anyone to see his weaknesses or insecurities.

The only reason you knew was because you refused to let things go, especially when it came to the people you cared about. It wasn't all that hard to get Jongin to spill his thoughts to you.

"Thank you... Thank you for doing that for me." Minseok's eyes glisten as he roughly tries to get the words out. He clears his throat in an attempt to regain some composure. "I understand you doing what you did, and that's not the reason I've avoided you. Actually, the reason I've stayed away from you has nothing to do with you at all."

Jongin looks at the older man in confusion, and you were sure you mirrored the look on your face as well.

"I've been avoiding you because of my own insecurities," Minseok admits before looking back up at the ugly painting. "I feel like a coward for not killing my father. I feel like a coward because I couldn't kill my father."

You and Jongin stare at Minseok with wide eyes after hearing his confession. You wanted to speak up, to tell him he shouldn't feel that way, and hell, give the man a hug, but you remained in your seat. A ton of emotions crossed Jongin's face as he tried to process what he was hearing.

"I should've been the one to do it. I should've been able to do it... How come you could do it, but I couldn't?" Minseok's voice cracks on the last word as he looks back at Jongin.

Jongin fiercely shakes his head as he scoots to the end of his seat. "It's a good thing that you couldn't do it. That means that this life hasn't completely destroyed all of your morals. It means that you're a better person than I am."

"I'm a good person because I couldn't kill a bad guy?" Minseok shakes his head. "Why should I be second if I can't even do something for the good of EXO? Something that had to be done because he murdered the head of our family?"

Jongin and you both startle at his comment. For some reason, you had never expected him to feel like he wasn't doing a good job as your brother's second. You could see him feeling slightly ashamed since the mafia world was all about showcasing strength and power, but you didn't realize how deep it went.

"Are you crazy?" Jongin raises his voice without care. "You're an amazing second for Junmyeon, and you know he doesn't blame you a single bit for not doing it. He even offered to do it himself. Don't doubt your abilities in this group. You've helped Junmyeon make us what we are today, and we wouldn't be where we are without you."

"I just feel like I let him down... like I let everyone down..."

"I feel like I let EXO down..."

Yixing's voice flashes through your head, speaking nearly the same words, with the same tone, as Minseok. If only the guys learned to talk to each other about their insecurities... You knew they wouldn't judge each other, so you couldn't figure out why they wouldn't share those feelings.

"Minseok..."

Both men turn towards you with a little jump. It was clear they forgot you were still in the room with them. A part of you felt bad for interrupting, but you also felt like you had some of the missing pieces to the puzzle they were all trying to solve.

"Do you think Yixing should step down from medical?"

The pair look at you like there was a second head growing out of your shoulder, like you were suddenly speaking an alien language, like someone could bust into the room and tell them monkeys had taken over the world, and what you said was more absurd.

"Yixing's been debating if he should leave EXO ever since Kyungsoo's death." The men interrupt you with shocked gasps, Jongin going as far as partially standing up before he sits back down to hear the rest of your words. "He doesn't think he should be here anymore because he couldn't save him, and he doesn't know if he's wanted here."

"That's insane. Of course, we want him here." Jongin immediately states.

Minseok looked like he was at a confusing loss with this new information he was getting. A part of it didn't make sense to him, but then again, a part of it he could relate to.

"Maybe the two of you can sit down and talk to each other?" You suggest to Minseok. "The way you're feeling about Yixing leaving is the way we feel about you leaving. It doesn't make sense because you belong here with EXO."

Baekhyun's POV

Baekhyun sat in the armchair, tucked away in the corner of his bedroom, feeling pissed off and mentally exhausted. If he thought kicking the shit out of someone or shooting someone would make him feel better, he would be doing that, but he knew that wasn't the answer to his current situation.

If he were to sit there and try to sort through his thoughts, the first thing that would come to mind was anger. He was angry about Junmyeon's little "pow-wow" earlier, irate that you never said a god damn word about some man watching you from the woods, and fucking pissed off that Junmyeon was right about the fact that you could've been killed right then. He could've lost you... You could've been ripped away from him, and that would've been it.

"Fuck!" He shouts, punching the armrest of the chair in frustration.

With his arms resting on his knees, he drops his head into his hands and runs his fingers through his hair. Taking a deep breath, he tries to calm himself down through a couple of breathing techniques that he always relied on and focus on what else was bugging him.

Except you were still the main subject.

He knew he was being weird towards you and sending you mixed signals, and it was irritating him. How could he kiss and hug you and then ignore you almost immediately afterward? It wasn't fair to you, and you didn't deserve that kind of treatment.

Admittedly, he wasn't good with serious relationships. One night stands? Of course. Casual hookups? Easy. A relationship with someone he actually cares about and could see a potential future with? Terrifying.

He knew he had issues. Knew he wasn't perfect, but shit, he didn't truly realize it was that bad.

With all these thoughts running through his mind, he knew the only thing that would help him figure everything out was talking to you. Especially because when he kissed you, you definitely kissed him back.

A knock on his door pulls him from his thoughts, and he can only guess who it is. With a sigh, he stands up and heads over to the door, running a list through his head of who it could be. Probably Chanyeol.

He swings the door open, already ready to tell the taller man he didn't want to deal with his shit tonight, but is instead surprised to see you. He backs up, a little startled that you were suddenly in front of him, and studies you.

You look drained, and all of a sudden way older than you did when he saw you at the meeting barely a half-hour ago. The apparent bags under your eyes skyrocketed his concern for you.

"What's wrong?" He asks, pulling you into his bedroom.

You filled him in on the situation with Minseok and Jongin, which he had been expecting for a while. Then, you told him about Yixing, which he had been blindsided by. He was mad at himself for not noticing that the softest one of the bunch was struggling so badly. While you talked, he did his best to comfort you. He held you in a tight hug and rubbed either your arms or your head until the thought occurred to him that the last time he had held a woman like this... it had been his sister... before he lost her.

He temporarily pushed the thought to the back of his mind, knowing he would have to sort through those feelings later, and tried to focus back on what you were saying.

The words your brother had said to you left you doubting yourself again, which was something he hated to see. Not only have you been through so much shit in your life, but you've come so far since being with them, and you were easily one of the strongest people he knew.

"Is he right about me? Should I back away from all of this?" You quietly ask.

The selfish part of him wanted to lie and say yes, because if you weren't involved in this life, maybe he could be with you... but he couldn't lie to you. He could lie to anyone else, but not you, and he knew this was what you wanted.

"Your brother is wrong about you, and I know you know that. As for if you should leave this life, that's something you need to decide for yourself. That's not something anyone else should have a say in."

You nod against his chest and fall silent, thinking over his words, while he contently holds you. It was a nice, private moment between you two, but Baekhyun knew it couldn't last forever when there was a giant elephant in the room, and it was only a couple seconds later when you brought up said elephant.

"We need to talk about the kiss."

When he offers no resistance, you pull away and search his face. "I know there's something between us, and I know that you feel it too."

"I'm not denying that," Baekhyun finally speaks. It was obvious there was something between you two... He would be lying if he said otherwise.

You search his gaze, and he could see the small bit of surprise his words cause you. He couldn't really be upset that you doubted he would admit to it when all he's done is try to run from this conversation.

Your eyes trail down to his lips, and he wets them before he realizes what he is doing. His action causes your eyes to slightly darken. He knew right away the thoughts that were flowing through your mind because he was sharing the same ones.

Tentatively, you reach your hand up and lightly cup his cheek, causing his eyes to fall closed at your touch. The next moment, he felt your soft lips carefully touch his. He clenches his hands into fists at his side so that he would keep his hands to himself and matches your slow pace, but he could only continue like this for so long because he wanted you. Now.

It took all of his willpower to keep the kiss light, but the second he felt you daringly lick his bottom lip, it was over.

His hands fly up to your hair as he tries to pull you impossibly closer. Clearly, it was exactly what you wanted, because your lips instantly part and allow his tongue into your mouth.

He greedily kisses you with everything he has in him, tries to pour his thoughts and feelings from his mouth to yours, and he is shocked at the giddy feeling growing inside him. He suddenly felt like a teenage boy with his first love.

You make a small gasp that travels right through his body, and alarm bells sound in his head. He had to stop this before it went any further.

He pulls away and rests his forehead against yours, keeping his eyes closed as he tries to gather his thoughts. The two of you breathe like you had just run for your lives. When he opens his eyes again, he sees a brilliant smile light up your face, and he starts to feel a small part of himself closing up.

You pull away and meet his eyes. "I like you, Baekhyun."

His heart literally tries to fly out of his chest. This was what he wanted, and deep down maybe even needed, but those fears quickly seize him and attempt to drag him back down.

He takes a step back, not knowing that it would be one of the hardest things he's ever done, and tries to ignore the confused look that was making its home on your face.

"Y/N... You're one of the most amazing people I know, and I know I'd be the luckiest man on Earth to have you, but we can't be together." He looks away from you because he can't stand to see the shocked and hurt look on your face. "Not only because of your brother and the issues it would cause, but because you want to be involved in this world... I don't want to be with someone who I'd have to worry about coming home every night from some dangerous mission, and I don't want to put somebody in that position either. I saw what it did to my sister and Minhyuk, and I would never want to put the person I love through that. It would kill me, and your determination to get yourself killed already almost does that... You mean so much to me, but we can't..."

He ignores the fact that his voice cracks on the last word, and pushes aside the feeling that he's literally drowning and that his heart feels like it's dying in his chest, and searches your face.

Your breathing was stuttered, and tears were beginning to brim up in your eyes, and he wanted to stab himself for being the one to do that to you. The utter look of heartbreak was etched onto your face, and he forces himself to look at it because he didn't deserve to forget the pain he was causing you.

You silently nod before excusing yourself and running for the bedroom door. It takes all of his willpower to stop himself from going after you. He wanted to take it all back, but he kept telling himself that he was doing the right thing.

Still, his body didn't listen, and he found himself walking toward his door. The only thing that stops him is Chanyeol suddenly showing up in his doorway.

Baekhyun stops short and looks up at the taller man. The expression on his face was a clear one of judgment. A "really dude" look. He glances back down the hallway, at what Baekhyun assumed was your retreating form, before looking back at him.

"The leader's sister? Junmyeon will kill you."

"I don't really give a fuck what Junmyeon does right now." Baekhyun turns away from him and heads back into his room. "It doesn't matter anyway... I turned her down."

"Good. Then, let's go out." Chanyeol shamelessly says while following him into his room.

Baekhyun turns back to his brother, not bothering to hide the disgust he was feeling towards him for acting like this wasn't a big deal. "Go the fuck away, Chanyeol."

"Come on! It'll be fun, and it's a good way to forget about her."

At that moment, Baekhyun wanted to murder his best friend. Straight up, paint the walls red, but he refrained because he knew Chanyeol was barely dealing with losing Sehun; however, Baekhyun only had so much patience left.

"If you don't get the fuck out of my room, I swear on my life, I will stab you in the neck."

The look on Baekhyun's face must've been enough to get through to Chanyeol because the man eventually turned and left the room without another word.

Baekhyun wanted to scream. He wanted to fight. He wanted to unleash the building up pain and anger he was feeling, so he grabbed the closest thing on the desk next to him and whipped it at the wall, finding small relief in the destruction.


	6. Part 6

For some reason, you had never expected Baekhyun to turn you down, and for the life of you, you couldn't figure out why. Just because he kissed you? Because he held and comforted you when you needed it over the past few months? When did you become so sure that he even liked you?

His words come back to you as you drop face down onto your bed in an attempt to silence your cries. "I know I'd be the luckiest man on Earth to have you, but we can't be together." You couldn't be together because you wanted to be involved in the same world as him? Deep down, way deep down, you knew a part of what he said made sense. What he witnessed happen to his sister and Minhyuk was horrible and you completely understood why he wouldn't ever want to experience that, but that didn't mean you liked it.

After you felt like you had emptied your body of tears, a knock sounded on your door. You had every intention of ignoring it because there wasn't a single person you wanted to talk to right now, but whoever it was, they were adamant to see you.

Once the fifth round of knocks comes, you push yourself onto your side and loudly say, "What? What do you want?"

You didn't care how it came off or if you sounded like a bitch. All you wanted was to be alone. Once you spot your doorknob starting to twist, anger quickly begins to stir in you, but once you see Yixing's concerned face, it melts away entirely.

He quietly walks into the room while surveying you, and you knew right away what he would see. A splotchy, flushed face still slightly wet and stained with tear tracks and swollen eyes, but you didn't care. You look at him with a blank stare and blink, causing him to quickly shut your bedroom door and come over to you on your bed.

He tries to hide the worried look on his face as he sits on the edge of your bed, but you see it.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I told Baekhyun I liked him." You answer blandly.

Yixing jolts at your sudden confession before confusion slides onto his face. "But why are you crying?"

"Because he turned me down."

Yixing's mouth falls open, and he blinks a couple times before he shakes his head. "I'm sorry... What?"

Even though everything in you wanted to forget what happened, you give Yixing a recap of your conversation with Baekhyun and watch as Yixing's facial expressions go from confused to bewildered to pity. After you finish, he silently sits there and processes everything you had told him. A minute passes by before he nods and turns to you.

"He's terrified of the past repeating itself. After everything happened with his sister and Minhyuk, Baekhyun was such a mess, and that's putting it politely. Actually, he was a completely different person than he is now. Imagine Chanyeol, but with a death wish. Baekhyun pushed every limit that he could to the point where Junmyeon lost hope of ever getting the old Baekhyun back. For a while, the only reason he stayed alive was for his mom. Even though they rarely saw each other, they were all the other one had left..." Yixing trails off, pausing in thought.

"That was around the time I joined EXO. I had never known Baekhyun before his sister's death, but I hated who he was then. Over time, he found ways of healing and eventually came to be who he is now, but it wasn't pretty."

You were enraptured with Yixing's words. Baekhyun had once told you his story and about Jisoo and Minhyuk, but hearing it from another perspective was truly eye-opening. Your heart ached for him and imagining Baekhyun like Chanyeol was something that was almost out of your realm of comprehension.

Yixing looks down and grabs one of your hands, giving it a squeeze. "I'm not saying I agree with him, but I want you to know where he's coming from... Imagining him back in that position or you there yourself terrifies me. I can't even begin to think about how much it terrifies him."

You're quiet for a moment as you search for your voice, but then you lick your lips and say, "I understand where he's coming from... Everything you've said... God, I can't imagine... but what's his plan then? To be alone forever? Isn't it better to have loved and lost than never loved at all? There's a reason that's a famous quote."

Yixing gives you a small smile. "I don't know what his thoughts are... but if you're asking me... I don't think you should give up on him. He cares about you. Any idiot with eyes can see that."

You nod your head and look down at your lap. You had no idea where to go from here. Yixing lets you sit with your thoughts for a moment before he squeezes your hand again to get your attention.

"I wanted to thank you."

When he notices your visible confusion, he smiles. "Minseok came and talked to me. It seems a little birdy told him how I was feeling."

"I'm sorry if I broke your trust, Xing, but they needed to know how you were feeling, and I didn't know what else to do to help..."

He shakes his head at your words. "I'm not mad at you. I'm grateful for what you did. Talking to Minseok helped a lot, and I think I was able to help him a little too."

A genuine smile breaks out on your face. "Well, good, I'm glad. In fact, this is the best news I've heard in a while."

"Jongin also came and talked to me. Very passionately. And loudly."

The grimace on his face was enough to pull a laugh out of you, and in that moment, you knew everything would be okay."

Sehun's POV

Sehun knew what he was doing was possibly very stupid and definitely incredibly dangerous, but it was something he felt he had to do. He couldn't explain it.

He couldn't help but think about how wrong he felt with the Baem. It didn't feel natural, and he felt like he always had to watch his back. Not to mention, the Baem somehow knew he wouldn't cooperate with them, and they were willing to kill him.

Then, there was the fact that he knew he was somehow connected to EXO. He didn't know how or why, but it was a bone-deep feeling he had, which is what had led him to do something that would most definitely get him killed.

He was going to help EXO out.

He didn't know how much help he was going to be or if EXO already knew the information he had gathered, but that wasn't going to stop him. He knew it was a risk and that EXO could kill him on the spot instead, but it sounded like he was a dead man either way.

Sehun had spent the past week learning all of the Baem's shipment routes, what they had in their inventory, and as many of their warehouse locations that he could find, and now, he just had to get the information to EXO.  
Which is what he was currently trying to do.

The Baem thought it was time to send him on a "solo" mission into the city. "Solo" because he knew the leaders had someone tailing him. This was just another one of their stupid tests, but Sehun jumped on the opportunity to get the hell out of that garbage compound they lived in.

They had sent him to a neutral ground auto shop to pick up some smuggled parts the Baem had requested from the crooked owner; however, Sehun had heard rumors that maybe the shop wasn't as neutral as they thought. Jaesuk, the one human being Sehun would consider to be his friend right now, had warned him that the auto shop may appear to be neutral but was actually EXO controlled, or so he heard.

That was when Sehun saw his opening. If the owner was EXO controlled, then that was how he was going to get the information to them. If Jaesuk was wrong, however, Sehun would be dead by the end of the night. It was still a chance he was willing to take.

Sehun didn't have much of a plan. All he had was an old ass map that he found at the compound, and he had to hope it was somewhat up-to-date. He had circled the locations that were Baem warehouses and drew a symbol next to each one signifying what they held. He highlighted their truck routes with arrows and wrote time blocks of when their vehicles would drive through. Lastly, for some unknown reason, he wrote the number 1485 in the bottom right corner of the map.

He didn't know what the numbers were for, but he knew they were important, and they weren't the only ones or things he was remembering. Locations, phrases, codes, they were all slowly coming back to him. He just had to figure out what they all meant.

Sehun came to stop outside of the address he was given and looked around. It was like every other auto shop he had seen, but in better shape than what he had been expecting for some reason. The giant garage doors were wide open to let in the gentle breeze from outside, and he could see workers tinkering under and around the vehicles on the lifts.

Sehun was looking down both directions of the street when he felt eyes boring into his back. His follower was, unfortunately, still there. He just hoped whoever it was wouldn't come inside behind him.

Taking a deep breath, he opens the door to the office and walks in. The smell of oil seeping in from the garage hits him as he looks around.

"Just a minute!" A deep voice comes from the back.

Sehun doesn't respond but walks up to the counter and leans on it. He nervously taps his fingers on the hard surface while he waits and tries to stay as calm as possible. This situation could go a hundred different ways, and he had to be ready for anything.

An older gentleman pops out from the back and looks at Sehun with a smile. If he had to guess, he would say the man was in his late 50's and physically not a huge threat, which allowed Sehun to feel some relief. He would be able to take him if necessary.

"Oh Sehun!"

The man greets him as he walks up to the counter. Sehun eyes him suspiciously before assuming the Baem sent information to the owner on who to look for. Oh, but he was very wrong.

"How's Chanyeol doing?" The owner asks him in a friendly voice.

Sehun freezes at the question. The only person named Chanyeol he's ever come across was Park Chanyeol, of EXO. Why would this man be asking him how Chanyeol was doing?

Sehun tries to hide his confusion as he looks the owner up and down. Apparently, Jaesuk's rumors were true. This man was friendly with EXO.

Instead of answering him, he pulls the papers that Minho gave him out of the pocket inside of his jacket and slowly hands them over to the owner. He waits for a reaction, and it doesn't take long.

As soon as the owner took the papers and looked down at them, his entire demeanor changed. He could see the caution that entered the man's face as he took in the Baem's business emblems on the paper.

The owner's eyes slowly leave the papers and travel up to Sehun's face. He searches his gaze for a moment, and it was clear both men were cautious and confused.

When the owner stays frozen in his spot, Sehun subtly looks over his shoulder to try to let the owner know that they were being watched and he hopes with everything in him that the owner understands what he's telling him. As Sehun looks back at him, he snaps out of his frozen state and takes off to the back.

Sehun was slightly bewildered for a moment, wondering if all hell was about to break loose, but then the owner comes back out with a couple of boxes in hand.

"This is half of it. You'll have to come back tomorrow for the rest." The owner tells him gruffly, the friendliness from earlier gone.

When the owner starts shoving the boxes over the counter towards Sehun, he knows this is his only chance to give the man the information he's gathered. As stealthily as he can, he slowly pulls out an envelope from his jacket and places it on the counter. He pushes it towards the owner while reaching for one of the boxes.

When the owner sees it, he freezes for a moment before quickly swiping it from view and putting it behind the counter. Sehun grabs the other box at the same time, hoping to hide the encounter from whoever was watching him outside.

"Is this going where I think it's going?" The owner asks quietly.

He didn't know how, but he knew the owner was talking about EXO.

"Yes, but without attachments."

The owner furrows his eyebrows at Sehun's request to send the information anonymously but eventually nods.

"Consider it done."

Relief floods through Sehun, confusing him even more. It was like his body knew what was right and was ten steps ahead of him, but his brain was a foggy mess. Either way, he's relieved to know the owner will pass it on anonymously because if he's wrong, he doesn't need EXO hunting him down too. One group of killers was enough.

Later that night, Sehun laid in his bed and pondered over what 1485 could be. A date? An address? Why did he feel compelled to write it down? How was EXO supposed to know what it was?

Another set of numbers flash through his mind after those and it was like his brain was screaming at him again. 1248-94. Those were important numbers, and for some reason, the 94 felt extremely significant to him. The number's kept repeating over and over in his mind until finally, it hit him.

1485 was a P.O. box number.

With this realization, he knew exactly what to do when he went back for the rest of the shipment, he would find the P.O. boxes burned into his mind, and he would leave whoever was on the other side a message.

Baekhyun's POV

You had been avoiding him for the past couple of days, and he hated it. He was miserable without you by his side, and he wished, more than anything, that he could take back what he said, but nothing had changed. All of his reasons for saying no to you were still valid. Unfortunately.

As Baekhyun lousily makes his way up the stairs to his room, he spots Jongdae knocking on his bedroom door.

"What's up?"

Jongdae turns at Baekhyun's voice and opens his mouth to speak, but pauses as he takes in Baekhyun's appearance.

"Are you okay?"

"Peachy. What's going on?"

He could tell Jongdae was tempted to ask more questions but was thankful when he let it go.

"That shipment from the auto parts store is coming in 1 hour... You're supposed to be the point of contact, but..." Jongdae trails off while looking him up and down. "You don't look that good right now..."

Baekhyun gives him a look. "Thanks, Dae."

"I'll go in your place. Why don't you... sleep or something."

Before Baekhyun can reply, the two hear feminine giggling coming from the stairs, and they both look over in confusion. You were the only girl here, and you definitely didn't sound like that.

Finally, Chanyeol's head emerges up the steps. A goofy grin was present on his face, and his clothes were a mess. Accompanying him were two females, one hanging off of each arm, and they looked just as much of a mess as he did. Their clothes were barely there, and the best way to describe their messy hair was "sex hair". Baekhyun watched the three struggle up the stairs in disgust. This was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

"Jesus christ." Jongdae mutters as he leaves Baekhyun to fend for himself, throwing "good luck" over his shoulder.

Baekhyun suddenly very much wanted to go to that meeting now as he watched the trainwreck make their way towards him. Instead, he attempts to make an escape into his bedroom. Ignoring Chanyeol's calls to him, he walks into his bedroom and starts to close the door when a heavy weight pushes from the other side.

Knowing it was Chanyeol, and realizing the intentions he had in bringing the women here, he uses more force to push at his door, but attempting to move Chanyeol was like trying to move a building.

Chanyeol gives one final shove causing Baekhyun to stumble backward and let go of the door. Chanyeol smiles at Baekhyun as he walks the girls in.

"Ladies! This is my rude best friend, Baekhyun. Baek, these are our new friends Ashley and Julia."

One of the girls pauses and gives Chanyeol a pout. "My name is Jaehwa."

"Whatever. It doesn't matter." He waves her off and turns to Baekhyun. "I've brought them here for you. They're going to help you loosen up and forget about Y/N."

One of the girls walks up to Baekhyun and puts her hand on his arm. "Yeah, we'll make you forget all about whats-her-name."

Intense anger washes over him, and he pushes her hands off him with a scoff. "What you're going to do is leave. Now."

"Oh, lighten up!" Chanyeol sighs as he walks past him and collapses on his bed. "Y/N isn't gonna give it up to you, so you might as well use them."

Baekhyun looks over at Chanyeol in disbelief. This was not his best friend. This was a stranger he hated.

"Who the fuck are you anymore?!"

He watches as Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders before proceeding to pass out. Moments later, he feels two sets of hands touching and rubbing his body, and there are about three seconds left before he loses his shit. He throws his hands up in the air and moves towards the door, out of reach of the two girls. Before they can process what he's doing, he's opening the bedroom door and moving behind them to push/escort them out.

He lets out a sigh of relief once they're in the hallway, but the girls were still determined to stay with him.

"Come on, Baekhyun. Let's have some fun." The girl, apparently named Jaehwa says, while turning towards him and grabbing his shirt. The other girl giggles and pulls at his arm to wrap it around herself.

Baekhyun wasn't a weak man, and he could definitely shake two girls off of himself, but they appeared to be really fucking persistent, and he didn't want to end up hurting them without reason to.

He looks up to the ceiling and tries to gather some patience when a scoff interrupts his thought process.

"Fucking really, dude?"

He feels his entire body go stiff at Jongin's voice and slowly looks down the hallway towards it. Jongin stood there with an irritated expression on his face as he shook his head, but it wasn't Jongin that Baekhyun's eyes landed on.

It was you.


	7. Part 7

It had only been a couple of days since Baekhyun turned you down, and yet it had already taken its toll on you. Not only were you lonely, but you were distracted, and your training was suffering because of it. Jongin was irritated, Jongdae was annoyed, Yixing was patient, but you knew you had to get it together. This is why when Jongin offered to do an extra session with you, you jumped on the opportunity.

So far, your day was pretty decent... until it wasn't. Jongin had come to your room a little early, and the two of you were heading down to the training room when you heard it.

Giggling.

Coming from Baekhyun's room.

A sick feeling blooms in your stomach at the grating sound, and you want to run and hide when Baekhyun's door suddenly opens, but your feet are rooted to the carpet.

Two girls, wearing scantily clad clothing, come out of his room with him trailing closely behind. You couldn't pull your eyes away from the trainwreck as you watch the girls rub their hands all over his chest and arms.

The giggling continues, and you have to pull your eyes away from the sight. It's only a second later when Jongin speaks up from next to you, causing Baekhyun to finally notice your presence.

When Baekhyun meets your stare, a panicked look enters his gaze, and that's when you feel the hope in you die. Any energy you once had escapes you and the sickness you felt turns into full-blown nausea.

You don't even realize you're shaking until Jongin quietly says your name in a concerned voice, semi snapping you out of the destroyed feeling your body was falling into.

He didn't have to be so cruel. He didn't have to bring those girls here and drive the point that the two of you couldn't be together home. You couldn't believe that Baekhyun had it in him to do something like this. Not him. Not to you.

Before you know what you're doing, your feet are moving at a rapid pace and you're slipping in between the wall and the three people who managed to break your heart in seconds. You could hear Baekhyun calling out to you, hear the desperation in his voice, but you ignore it. You ignore his footsteps as he attempts to come after you and ignore the relief you feel when you hear Jongin physically stop him from doing that.

You keep running and don't stop until you reach the training room and collapse on the blue mat. You try to focus on your erratic breathing and repeat the mantra "I am not going to fucking cry right now" over and over until you feel yourself calm down.

A few minutes later, Jongin busts into the training room and immediately tries to talk to you about what he had just witnessed. He takes in your overwhelmed state before kneeling next to you on the mat.

"Are you okay?" He asks, his bewildered gaze searching yours.

You push yourself up into a sitting position, instead of the near fetal position you were in, and say, "I'm fine."

"Bullshit. What the hell just happened?"

Jongin knew you had some type of feelings for Baekhyun, but you had never told him the extent of those feelings or that Baekhyun had dumped you before the two of you even got together, so you could only imagine what he was thinking right now.

"I don't want to talk about it." You mumble as you stand up, but Jongin stands right up with you, not willing to let it go just yet.

"Oh, we're definitely going to talk about it. You just lost your shit, and I need to know why."

"Jongin, please! I can't talk about it right now. I just want to train. I need to train."

He searches your face in frustration, his expression telling you he still wanted to have this conversation, before sighing and shaking his head. "Fine. I'll let it go for now, but don't think we won't be revisiting this topic. Just let me know if I need to kill Baekhyun."

"I'll get back to you on that." You walk into the center of the room and drop into a sparring position. "Now, let's go."

After about a half an hour of Jongin absolutely kicking your ass over and over again, and much to your frustration, he refuses to continue.

"You're getting worse."

"It's not... that bad. I just need to train more. Come on, let's go another round."

Jongin shakes his head as he stares at one of the empty walls. A part of you wished you were telepathic so you could know whatever it was he was thinking.

"I have to tell your brother." He finally says.

Panic floods through your system as you think about what the consequences would be for you messing up again. "No! He doesn't need to know. It's just a temporary setback. I'll be back to normal soon."

"He has to know you're distracted before he allows you to do something dangerous."

"Jongin, please. Don't tell him yet." You plead, realizing you weren't above begging.

"If something happens to you, Junmyeon will fucking kill me. You get that, don't you? You have to be prepared at all times, and right now, I wouldn't trust you to be out there with any of us. You're a liability in this state, and you know I wouldn't be telling you about this if I didn't give a fuck about you."

Your heart drops into your stomach at his words, but you knew he was telling the truth. You were distracted, to say the least, and you didn't want any of them to suffer the consequences for your mistakes.

A couple of hours later, you're sitting across from your brother in his office. You had only been in here a couple of times, but every time you were in here, you felt like you were in trouble at some fancy-ass boarding school.

The mahogany wood of the desk and bookshelves gleamed like they were polished daily. There was a tall plant sitting on the floor by the window, and you knew there was no way your brother watered it. You were sitting on a deep green, velvet chair that you would definitely not describe as comfortable, while your brother sat in a leather chair behind his desk. A pile of paper and envelopes sat off to the corner of his desk, and it was obvious that he was going through them before you came in.

A sigh escaped his mouth, and you could feel the disappointment harbored inside of it.

"Jongin says you can't complete your combat training at the moment. That you're not focused and not ready." He pauses and studies your face waiting to see if you'll take the bait or not. When you stay silent, he purses his lips and continues. "Care to comment?"

"He's right," you regretfully admit. "I'm too distracted."

Your brother tries to hide his surprise at your blatant response. "Why would that be?"

You look down at your hands in your lap to avoid his gaze. There were a lot of things you would talk to Junmyeon about, but you didn't want Baekhyun to be one of them. Instead, you attempt to come up with a list of things that could explain your sudden distraction, but it didn't feel fair to try to put the blame on someone or something else. Plus, you didn't really feel like lying to your brother about stupid shit.

"What's going on with you and Baekhyun?"

You automatically go to answer but then freeze when his question registers in your head. You snap your gaze up to him and croak out, "what?"

How and when did he figure out there was something between Baekhyun and you?

He snorts at your lost look. "Do you think I became a leader because of my obliviousness?"

You open your mouth to speak, but nothing comes out.

"With the way he left that meeting earlier this week where we discussed the possibility of you dying, and the way the two of you have been moping around the house the past couple of days, clearly something is going on. Is he the reason you're distracted?"

Your eyes fall back down onto your lap as you try to figure out how you want to answer his question. The answer was an obvious yes, but what would happen when you admitted that? How could you explain to your brother that you wanted to be with one of his men? How could you prove that you wouldn't be distracted when you already were? You couldn't.

A tear slides down your cheek without notice. The only thing that made you realize you were suddenly crying was Junmyeon sitting up in his seat at the sight of them.

You angrily wipe the tears as you say, "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm crying."

"You're frustrated..." He says understandingly before a look of decisiveness crosses his features. "Come on. Lay it on me."

You look up at him with an awkward and confused expression on your face, which causes him to roll his eyes.

"I'm your brother. Let me at least act like one for once."

A part of you wanted to tell him everything. You wanted to get it all off your chest and get a new perspective on the situation. You also craved that sibling bond that was stolen from you when you were younger. You wanted to be able to look at your older brother and tell him about everything under the sun, but you didn't really know how...

You search his gaze, and he nods like he's telling you it's alright to talk to him, so you do.

You tell him everything. About you and Baekhyun's friendship. About your feelings for him. About his rejection and the reasons behind it. What you saw in the hallway earlier that day. All of it. It felt like a weight had been lifted from your chest.

As you spoke, you watched the emotions flit across Junmyeon's face, even though he tried to hide it. You could see the anger and sorrow he felt towards Baekhyun and the pity and disappointment he felt towards you.

He sighs as he takes it all in. "You need to learn to push it all aside and focus on your task at hand, or it's going to cost you your life. I can't have you out in the field if you're going to be distracted because of something stupid Baekhyun does."

"I know... and I'll work on it. I won't let myself be distracted from my main goal anymore. I'm going to focus on the Baem and how to destroy them. Everything else comes after that."

Your brother stares at you for what felt like minutes before saying "okay".

You nod and then glance out the window to your side as your brother gets back to going through his mountain of papers. A few minutes of silence go by before you hear your brother sigh.

"If you're going to sit there, you might as well make yourself useful." He says while pushing a part of the pile over to you.

You stare at it like you've never seen paper before in your life. "I don't know what I'm supposed to look for or what I'm even looking at."

"Time to learn, sis. Consider it part of your training."

With a sigh, you grab from the pile and open up the envelope. Papers with number come out, and it all looks like confusing mumbo jumbo to you. Your brother shows you all the different shipping papers, inventory records, and other basic bookkeeping things you could come across, and for the next 30 minutes, you mindlessly make your way through the pile.

You reach one of the last remaining envelopes on your side of the desk and tear it open. Inside, you notice a different kind of paper than all the other ones you've been seeing, and you pull it out and open it curiously.

The first thing you notice is that it's a map. Black and white lines marking the streets all over the city and neighboring cities crisscrossed over the paper. Colored arrows were drawn along them with times marked out, and random symbols were hastily marked by multiple buildings. No other words were written on the map, and you stared at it with confusion.

"What should I do with a map?"

Your brother looks over in confusion before shrugging. "It must've got mixed in accidentally. Just put it to the side for now."

You look back down at it and run your fingers over it. Weird, you think, before moving it to the side. As you set it down, a string of numbers in the corner catches your attention, causing you to pick it back up and study it some more.

You could only identify some of the symbols. One was clearly a gun, the other a symbol for money, but why would this be with the shipment papers? The arrows were marked on the streets in a distinctive pattern and the times wrote next to them clearly meant something.

You run your hand over the numbers in the corner of the page and mumble the 1485 out loud without realizing it. You also don't notice the sudden stiffness of Junmyeon as the number comes out of your mouth. Then, it finally dawns on you what you're looking at.

"Junmyeon..."

Junmyeon's POV

The second he heard the number 1485 leave your lips, Junmyeon knew something was up. He knew that you didn't know those numbers and that there was no way they would be on anything in that pile. Very select few people even knew what those numbers were.

When he hears his name whispered from your lips a second later, he jumps up from his seat and makes his way around his desk, almost taking out a lamp he had on the corner. His eyes meet your wide ones only for a second as he takes the map from your hands.

He quickly took in the symbols and arrows that marked the map and knew, right away, that it wasn't EXO related. This neighborhood wasn't controlled by them. It was the Baem's.

Why would someone send him this? Why give EXO so much critical information on the Baem? Was it a trap? His eyes trail down to the bottom where the 1485 was marked. There was no way this was the Baem. Not with those numbers on the bottom... but what did it mean? Could it have been from the one member they've been waiting for? Was Sehun behind this?

He didn't want to get his hopes up, and he certainly didn't want to get the member's hopes up, but he needed to tell them about this. With this information... they could take down the Baem for good.

"Meeting. 10 minutes." He calls back to you as he rushes out of his office.

Once all the members are sitting in the boardroom, Junmyeon tries to school his face into a blank state. He didn't want to show his eagerness and excitement to them, in case this turned out to be a waste of time.

"First, let me preface this by saying that if one more person walks out in the middle of a meeting, I will fucking shoot you. No matter how mad or upset you get, you do not walk away from family."

He aims his comment at Chanyeol, but it stood for all of them. He was tired of being blatantly disrespected by his most trusted men.

"I'm pretty sure family doesn't shoot each other either." Chanyeol snipes back.

"If you walk away from us, then you're not really family, and you don't belong here."

He fixes his stare on Chanyeol as he speaks and knows his expression conveys that he is waiting for Chanyeol to say something. Chanyeol meets his stare for a moment, debating before he looks away.

"Now," Junmyeon picks up the envelope with the folded map from the table and waves it in the air. "Does anyone know where this envelope came from today?"

The men who dealt with any paperwork today lean forward to look over the envelope and see if they recognize it. He got a few head shakes before he got his answer.

"That was in the auto shop shipment," Jongdae answers him.

Junmyeon scrunches his brows in confusion. Wasn't Baekhyun taking care of that? He glances over at the man in question and quickly takes in his messy appearance and tired eyes. He mentally sighs at the sight. Clearly, Baekhyun was just as unfocused and distressed as you were, and he was going to have to do something about it. Junmyeon shakes away the thought and looks back at Jongdae.

"Is this the auto shop that we control in the dead zone?"

"Yeah. The owner gave the shipment to me personally. Why?"

"He didn't say anything at all?" Junmyeon questions him.

Jongdae thinks for a second but then shakes his head. "No, but he was acting strange. He seemed fidgety like he was worried about something. I made a mental note to dig around later."

"Well, here's the reason why." He says as he unfolds the map and slides it to the center of the table.

Everyone stands up to get a closer look, except for Chanyeol, who stays seated in boredom. The overall consensus is confusion before realization slowly took over each face. That realization gave way to amazement as they all began excitedly discussing what this could mean.

"We need to go check out the P.O. box." Jongin instantly says.

"What P.O. box?" Junmyeon hears you quietly ask. He glances over in your direction and notices how distant you are from the rest of the men, or maybe just from Baekhyun.

"That's what the 1485 is. It's our P.O. box for passing along information. Only a few people outside of this room know about it." Minseok fills you in.

Yixing turns to Junmyeon and asks, "Do you think it's Sehun?"

At the mention of Sehun's name, Chanyeol stands up from his seat and heads toward the door.

"Chanyeol." Junmyeon growls.

Chanyeol turns around tiredly, the fight completely gone from his face, startling not only Junmyeon but everyone else. Chanyeol looked dead inside like nothing mattered anymore. What was even worse was that... he seemed completely sober. Chanyeol looked like a dead man walking, and fear chased away the anger Junmyeon felt. They needed to get through to him and fast because they were about to lose him.

"What? Are you going to shoot me, Junmyeon? Go ahead. I don't care."

Junmyeon opens his mouth to speak, but Chanyeol interrupts him.

"I don't care about any of this anymore."

"How could you not care?" Junmyeon tries to keep the pleading from his voice as he speaks. "This is information on the Baem with our P.O. box code on it. What if it's Sehun?"

"It's not." Chanyeol dejectedly replies.

Minseok makes his way around the giant wood table towards Chanyeol. "How do you know? This could be proof that Sehun is with the Baem."

Chanyeol lets out a soft snort. "You think Sehun would willingly be working with them? That they would just hand over this type of information to share with us? What about the more likely scenario? That they tortured the information out of him. That this is more than likely a trap for us to walk into. I told you if Sehun was still alive, he wouldn't leave some hidden message in a P.O. box. He'd come back to us. Not to mention, Jongdae just said the owner was being shady. Who's to say he didn't double-cross us and take up with the Baem instead?"

Junmyeon took in his words and realized everything he said was scarily accurate, and the others knew it as well. The odds that this was probably a trap set up by the Baem were astronomically high. The likelihood that Sehun was still alive was slim-to-none, and the chance he was sending them a message was even less, but still, Junmyeon had to have hope. He couldn't lose two men in one year.

"There's only one way to find out. Tomorrow, Jongin and Baekhyun will go to the auto shop and have a talk with the owner. You need to find out if he's crossed us and switched sides, and find out who gave him that map. Jongdae, I need you to start checking out all of those marked places on the map to see if any of them are accurate. Minseok, you and Y/N are going to check out the P.O. box and see if someone left any hidden treasures. I want you to bring your unit with you as well, in case Chanyeol is right, and this is a trap."

You look at him with startled eyes. "Me?"

"Yes, you. Not only will the fresh air clear your head, but this is your chance to prove you've learned something from these goons."

Y/N's POV - The next day

"Are you ready?" Minseok asks you over the dull sound of the radio.

You were anxious, nervous, and a little excited, but were you ready? Would you be able to fight your way out of a situation if necessary? Would you be able to back up Minseok if his unit didn't get to him in time? If this was all a trap and you were about to be taken down by the Baem, were you prepared?

"The longer I think about it, the less prepared I feel."

Minseok hums in acknowledgment. "That's the nerves. You're starting to psych yourself out."

You nod and glance out the window, taking in the outskirts of the city you were approaching. The beautiful skyline made it seem like you were transported to a new world, and soon the hustle and bustle of city life came into view causing your anxiety to spike. When was the last time you had been around so many people?

Your eyes dart around, taking in the daily lives of strangers. The mother hurriedly pushing her child in a stroller, the men in business suits talking into their Bluetooth's, the teenagers laughing with their groups of friends... it all felt so foreign to you.

"I trust you, you know that, right?" Minseok randomly says, causing you to turn and look at him.

"What?"

"If we're about to walk into an ambush, I trust you to have my back."

His words make the tension you were feeling melt away. "Thanks, Minseok."

"It also helps that my entire unit is stationed all over the city in case we need backup." He jokes while pulling over into a parking spot in the street.

You take a glance at the tall buildings that surrounded you but have no idea what you're looking for. "Where are we?"

"We're a couple of blocks away from the post office. I thought it'd be better if we didn't drive straight into an ambush." He unbuckles his seatbelt and throws open the door to get out as he talks.

You scramble to undo your belt and do the same before catching up with him on the sidewalk. The two of you are silent and lost in your thoughts as you make your way to the post office, but once Minseok slows down at the corner of a building, you go on high alert.

You watch Minseok as he puts what you've learned in training into use. You see him scoping out the area, searching for signals or clues that this could be any type of trap. Notice how he identifies each person in the area and mentally marks them as suspicious or a nonthreat.

"You should be the one doing this. Not me." He whispers, looking over his shoulder at you.

"But you're so good at it." You whisper back. "Besides, your unit already swept the city and said there was nothing out of the ordinary."

Minseok looks at you in disbelief, and you offer him a sheepish smile. "I know, I know. Always check for yourself, regardless of who tells you it's safe."

He shakes his head at you before deciding everything is okay and casually walks around the corner towards the post office. You follow on his heels, eager to see what's in the box. Could it really be Sehun sending a message? Is he really alive and okay?

As the two of you enter the building, your nerves reach a new high. You quietly follow Minseok to a row of numbered boxes built into the wall and hold your breath as he punches in the code to unlock the P.O. box. As soon as the box unlocks, he takes a breath to prepare himself, and then he pulls open the door.  
The two of you stare into the box in confusion.

"It's empty," Minseok says, before reaching inside and patting around like maybe there was something invisible in there. His shoulders slump after a moment, and he looks back at you. "Why send us here for nothing?"

A thousand horrifying thoughts fill your head, and it seems Minseok isn't far behind. The odds that this was a trap just skyrocketed. What if you're fucked the second you walk out of the building? What if this was a ploy to get some people out of the house, so the Baem could attack at home? Had Chanyeol been right?

The sound of a phone ringing caught your attention, and you look over at Minseok to see his phone in his hand as he called someone. Seconds later, you hear your brother's voice sounding perfectly normal.

"What's up?"

"Everything's okay there?" Minseok cautiously asks.

It's quiet for a couple of seconds before Junmyeon replies. "...Yes. Why?"

Both of you let out a relieved breath at his answer. "The box is empty."

Junmyeon takes a deep breath. "We're okay here, but you should know, Jongin and Baekhyun are on their way back. The owner of the auto shop apparently went out of town last night."

"That doesn't bode well." Minseok and you share a look at the awfully convenient timing.

"No. It does not, so you two need to be extra careful. It's starting to seem like it wasn't who we wanted it to be..."

His reference to Sehun made your heart hurt. You had all been silently hoping it was him behind the map...

"We're going to hang around here for a while and see if anything changes," Minseok responds. "Maybe... whoever it was hasn't gotten here yet."

The thought had occurred to you that maybe whoever left the message on the map hadn't had the chance to get there yet... or maybe even worse... they had been found out.

"Alright... just, please... be cautious, and don't let anything happen to my sister, Min."

"I got her. Don't worry."

Once Minseok finishes up the call, the two of you head back toward the car. The waiting process was long and boring, and you felt your annoyance rise to a level 10. You didn't think of yourself as an impatient person, but you were already so on edge, and the stakes were way too high.

Just before you thought you were going to lose your mind, Minseok declares he's going back to the post office. You open your door to follow him, but he turns to you and waves you off.

"I think you should just stay here and wait. I have a bad feeling that the P.O. box is going to be empty again, and I don't know who it is that's messing with us... but I'd rather you be away from the area, in case this is about to go south."

You feel disappointment clawing at you as you shake your head at him. "But I'm supposed to be out there with you... I can help you with whatever happens."

"I know you can, but my unit is already in the area, and they are way more prepared to deal with this type of situation... Plus, this way, you can be my getaway driver if I need it." He flashes you a smile to soften the blow, but you couldn't help but feel like he didn't fully trust you to have his back as he had claimed earlier.

As you watch him make his way back down the street, you sink back into your seat and settle in to people watch. Their 9-to-5 lives seemed so mundane to you, and you couldn't help but wonder... Would you have ever been able to lead that kind of life? Would you have been able to work an office job or be a stay at home mother? The idea sounded ludicrous to you. That just wasn't your path in this life.

Your attention is dragged to a couple who held hands as they walked down the sidewalk. Could that be you one day? Could you freely walk with your significant other and laugh like you didn't have a care in the world?

You stared at them as they disappeared around the corner, lost in thought. It wasn't until you saw a familiar head that you were thrown back into reality.  
Disappearing around the same corner as the couple was a tall, thin man with jet black hair that closely resembled the person you had all been searching for. In fact, you would bet your fucking life that you had just saw Oh Sehun in the flesh.

You throw open your door and almost tumble out of the vehicle in a rush. Not even bothering to shut the door, you take off toward the corner, hoping to not lose sight of him. By the time you had gotten around the corner, you spot his long legs toward the end of the block, and you groan, knowing you're going to have to run to reach him in time.

You sprint towards the end of the block but fail to notice him glance over his shoulder as he rounds the corner. Your only thought is that Sehun is literally within reaching distance, and you needed to get to him as soon as possible.  
Not bothering to slow down once you reach the corner, you run smack dab into the male in question. You almost trip over your feet in surprise and look up at him with wide eyes. Had he been waiting for you?

You take in his blank stare, and the suspicion etched on his face, but before you can open your mouth to speak, his hand shoots out, and he grabs your neck tightly. Fear and confusion ring loud in your head as you reach to pull his hand off of you, but his grip grows tighter.

"Who are you?" He growls out.

You try to draw in a breath to answer, but he suddenly slams your body up against the brick wall of a building you were standing next to, effectively knocking any air you had left from your body.

"Why are you following me?" He grinds out as he brings his face closer to yours, but never loosening his group to allow you to answer.

Your mind falls into a panicked frenzy as you desperately claw at his hands in an attempt to break free. What the fuck was happening?! Why was Sehun trying to strangle the life from you, and why was he asking you who you were?!

Pleading with your eyes, you mentally scream for him to stop, but the expression on his face remains blank. He looked like he had no knowledge of who you were... like you were a complete stranger to him.

"Sehun..." You manage to gasp out, feeling yourself grow weaker from the effort.

Black spots begin taking over your peripheral vision, and you meet his dead stare for what seems like the last time.

You never thought Oh Sehun would be the one to kill you.


	8. Part 8

Sehun's POV

Sehun could feel it the moment somebody had started following him. He didn't know how, but he assumed it was because of his prior training. He was already on edge thanks to his suicidal mission to help EXO, and he definitely did not need another person following him. He barely managed to get rid of the Baem member that had been following him.

Was it a coincidence that just minutes after he drops off his note to EXO someone had started following him? Could it be a member of EXO? Or did the Baem send more than one person to watch him?

He glances behind him to see who it was that was setting off his alarms. He saw workers, families, kids... and a girl running full force toward him. It couldn't be her though, could it? Why would a girl be following him, and why would she make it that obvious?

Still, the closer you got to him, the more his hackles raised. Something wasn't right.

He ducks around the next corner, which thankfully leads him to a nearly empty street, and comes to a stop. He readies himself for you to come around the corner, and it wasn't long until you did.

You came around the corner so fast, if he hadn't been prepared, you would've both been on the ground. Instead, you run directly into him and then step back with wide eyes. You clearly hadn't been expecting him.

He takes advantage of your disorientation and quickly wraps his hand around your throat. Surprise swept through your face before confusion and fear followed. It took only a couple of seconds for you to reach for his hand and attempt to pull him off of you.

"Who are you?" Sehun growls out.

He could tell you were trying to answer him or maybe trying to breathe because you looked like a gaping fish. A part of him felt bad for doing this, but he needed to find out who you were and fast. There was no time for games.

You were stronger than you looked, and his hand on you started to loosen, so he quickly throws you up against the brick wall next to him and brings his other hand up to your throat.

"Why are you following me?"

The fear on your face grows as your hands claw desperately at his. Sehun pushed away the guilt and worry he was beginning to feel and focuses on your hand reaching for his. There was something... oddly familiar about them...

His hold loosens minutely, as he stares at them, almost mesmerized. That annoying alarm in his head begins going off, just like it did when he remembered those numbers and the P.O. box... Something wasn't right...

"Sehun..."

You gasp out his name and startle him for a second. He looks back at your eyes, and he can tell you're beginning to lose consciousness. The fight your hands held was dimming, and your actions were slowing. His eyes are unwillingly drawn back to your hands, and suddenly he's transported to a different time and space.

He was standing at a sink... terrified thoughts about losing someone ran through his head... His hands were covered in blood that wasn't his... Someone was gently washing that blood away from his hands... He was feeling whatever had happened was all his fault, and he was barely holding on to his cool.

The memory became even more vivid as he could hear the worried voices of his brothers behind him, murmuring about Jongin. He remembered staring at the hands that washed the blood from his, and with a jolt, he realizes that those exact hands were weakly grabbing at his right now.

He slams back into the present and looks up at your face wildly. It was you. You were the one washing the blood from his hands in that memory... He knew you.

He let's go of you in shock and then dazedly watches as you drop to the ground like a doll. You immediately begin drawing in deep breaths and coughing as the air passes through your slightly damaged throat but even as you struggle to catch your breath, you attempt to stand back up.

Sehun drops down to your level and pushes down on your shoulders gently. "Don't try to stand up yet. You need a minute to recuperate."

You slowly nod as your rub your hands along your sore neck. You cautiously meet his gaze and search his face in confusion. Sehun avoids your scrutiny and glances down at his hands on your shoulder. With a shiver, he removes his touch from you and stares at his hands. He had just tried to kill you with them. He shouldn't be touching you in an attempt to comfort you with them.

Once you're able to breathe normally, you attempt to say his name, but he quickly shakes his head. It sounded like your throat was full of rocks, and it sounded very painful.

A wave of sadness overcomes him at the sound. He did this to you. He caused someone, that clearly cared for him, pain.

"It's me..." You cough out, even though Sehun tries to get you to stop. "It's Y/N."

The name sounds vaguely familiar, and while everything in him told him he could trust you, he still couldn't remember who you were.

It all clicked a moment later when he recalled the memory he had just had. Something had happened to Jongin... a member of EXO... and in those thoughts, he referred to EXO as his brothers... A moment later, your name ran through his head, and it dawned on him that you were the leader's sister.

"Y/N..." He quietly says, testing the name out like it's a new word.

What did all this mean? Why was he with EXO? Why was the leader's sister washing blood from his hands? Why did he care about something happening to Jongin?

Unless...

No... It was too far-fetched, wasn't it? Then again, with everything he was beginning to remember and what he had overheard the Baem leaders talking about... Maybe it wasn't...

Had the Baem been lying to him all this time?

Was he actually a member of their rival group? Was he a member of EXO?

He's brought back to the present by your panicked voice as you speak his name over and over again. He looks down at you as you get into a kneeling position across from him, almost like you're about to plead with him.

"Where have you been, Sehun?"

He watches your reaction closely as he responds. "I've been with the Baem..."

You close your eyes as a look of pain crosses your face, but then you open them again and meet his gaze. "Have they hurt you? Are you okay?"

He meets your questions with a look of confusion. He wouldn't even know how to begin to describe his thoughts to you.

"But if the Baem have you, how are you outside and alone right now?" You ask him in clear confusion as you look over his body for what he would assume were marks or wounds.

"I'm not alone... There are others here."

Panic washes over your face as you look over your shoulder and at the surrounding area. You quickly get up to your feet, pulling Sehun up with you. "We've got to go."

"I can't," he says as he stops you from pulling him back around the corner.

You stop and turn around to face him with an incredulous look. "What do you mean you can't?"

You stare at him like he's lost his damn mind... and he has.

"What are you talking about? You have to come home! To EXO. To Chanyeol. He's a fucking wreck without you, Sehun. He needs you to come back. We all do."

He can hear the sincerity in your words, and he knows you're telling him the truth, but he was so goddamned confused by everything. He didn't know what way was up or down at this point.

"When was the last time you saw me?" He curiously asks.

You meet his stare, and he can see the denial in your eyes. You knew something was seriously wrong here, but you didn't want to believe what you're brain was telling you. That Sehun had forgotten all about you and EXO.

"At the warehouse, remember? You were saving me... The Baem had kidnapped me..." Acceptance begins growing on your features as you quietly finish. "But you don't remember, do you?"

Sehun slowly shakes his head, and you gradually look down at the ground in devastation. The want to comfort you rises, but he makes no moves. He feels like he should apologize for not remembering, but he wasn't sure it would do any good.

Before either of you can say another word, he hears it... the call signal.

The Baem were coming.

He quickly grabs your arm and pulls you further down the block. You almost drag behind him at the suddenness, but your feet quickly catch up.

"Where are we going?"

"You need to hide." He responds, pulling up short when he notices an alley to his right.

He spots a couple of metal dumpsters and pushes you toward them, but you spin back around and immediately question him.

"Why am I hiding?"

"The Baem are here. They're signaling for me right now. You need to hide." He quickly tells you as he points towards the dumpsters.

Thankfully, you immediately get the hint and sprint to hide behind one of the giant metal bins. Once Sehun makes sure he can't see you, he walks back out of the alley and heads toward the whistling that's grown exponentially louder.

He tries to calm his racing heart and puts a causal mask back over his face. His thoughts, on the other hand, were frantic. Not only did he hope and pray that you stayed hidden, but now he had to not freak out because of the two things he had just learned.

He was not a Baem member, and he sure as hell didn't belong with them.

Y/N's POV

You stayed hidden behind the giant garbage bin as your thoughts tripped over themselves. What in the actual fuck was going on?

You steady your breathing and try to listen for any sounds, but the alley was like a wind tunnel. Noise traveled in from both entrances, and cars masked the sounds the pedestrians made.

Your throat fucking hurt and your body wanted to slump against the brick wall behind you in exhaustion but the alley walls were coated in a multitude of substances, none of which you wanted to touch, and the garbage bin was no better.

You drop down into a crouch and run your fingers through your hair as your mind still tries to process the situation. Sehun had no freaking clue who you were. There was absolutely zero recollection toward you or any of the words you had said to him. On top of that, he tried to fucking kill you. Even more, he was working with the Baem?!

What were they telling him? How were they able to keep this charade up? ... How were you going to get him back?

But... he couldn't be all the way gone... He knew enough to hide you from the Baem and to send EXO important information on them... and there was a small spark behind his eyes when you mentioned EXO and Chanyeol but maybe that was an illusion due to the lightheadedness you felt after being fucking strangled.

There was a way to get him back. You just had to figure out how.

After a few more minutes, you stand back up and cautiously make your way back down the alley. Once you emerge back onto the sidewalk, you suddenly feel like you're in a liminal space, like you had just walked out of a movie theater after being transported to another world.

After getting to the end of the block, you can no longer keep up the slow, cautious pace, and the need to get back to Minseok was almost unbearable, so you break out in a run. The looks the other people walking on the sidewalk threw at you didn't phase you one bit.

As soon as the car was in sight, you spot Minseok pacing frantically next to it while shouting orders at two of his men who waited next to it. It's only a couple of seconds later when one of his men notices you coming up the block and points you out to him.

Minseok spins around to look at you, and his blazing eyes cause you to slow down your pace. Oh... he was pissed, and you were about to be in so much trouble for just abandoning the vehicle and taking off by yourself.

He immediately begins walking towards you, shouting, "What the fuck were you thinking?!"

People around you look over curiously, and Minseok snaps his head toward them.

"Can I help you?!"

You quickly reach him and grab his arm before he can draw more attention to the two of you.

"You can be pissed at me all you want, but we need to get back to the house. Now."

"Jesus Christ, what happened to your voice?" He immediately questions, concern taking over the anger he once felt.

He searches your face for an answer before his eyes make their way down to your neck. He pauses as he looks at it, and then his hand slowly goes up like he wants to touch it to get a better look, but decides against it. You close your eyes and figure out exactly what he was seeing. Sehun must've left marks...

"What the hell happened?" He lowly asks.

"I don't know if you'd believe me if I told you..."

"Your neck is turning fucking purple, so you better tell me something."

You sigh and bring your hand up to rub your sore neck. You could only imagine the reaction your brother was going to have.

"I saw Sehun."

Minseok's eyes widen into saucers, and he starts throwing a million questions at you. Where? With who? Why wasn't he with you? It was all too much.

You throw your hands up in front of you in a stop motion and snap Minseok's name to get him to stop talking. Once he quiets down, you fill him in on everything that happened and what you suspected was happening. Minseok looked like he wanted to interrupt you multiple times, but he managed to hold everything in.

One of his men steps up to the two of you and gestures toward the vehicle with his head. "I don't think you should be having this conversation on the street."

In the excitement and shock of what happened, both you and Minseok had forgotten all of the rules in place to keep EXO safe and you guiltily look around to take in your surroundings before the two of you head back to the vehicles with his men following closely behind.

As you get into the car, you can't help but ask the one question on your mind.  
"Do you believe me?"

Minseok sighs and crumples back into the driver seat, then reaches his hand into his pant pocket and pulls out a slip of paper. He hands it over to you and turns his head to see your reaction, while saying, "I do."

You unfold the slip of paper and take in the string of numbers before you. 1248-94.

"What is it?"

"That," Minseok says while turning the car on and shifting the gear into drive, "is Sehun's emergency code."

The two of you speed home as you discuss what all of this was supposed to mean. Sehun had no memory of you or apparently who he was, but he could remember random numbers? He was working with the Baem, but he also hid you from them? You pondered and theorized the entire ride home until Minseok killed the engine in the driveway of the compound.

The two of you get out and spot Jongin and Baekhyun a little farther up ahead. You ignore the pang you feel in your heart as you see Baekhyun. Those feelings would have to wait. There were more important things going on.

"I thought all you had to do was check a box?" Jongin jokes. "Did you guys get lost on the way home?"

Neither you nor Minseok laughs as you approach the duo, and Baekhyun shakes his head before looking away.

"You know, it doesn't hurt to laugh or smile. In fact, I hear it's quite good for you." The youngest continues on, much to your dismay.

"If you had said something funny, I'm sure you would've gotten a reaction." Minseok replies as the two of you come to a stop in front of them.

Jongin goes to reply, but before he can, Baekhyun takes a step toward you. Your eyes are immediately drawn to him, but his eyes were glued to your neck. The anger on his face was clear, but when he raises his eyes to yours, you actually let out a gasp.

You had never seen such a murderous expression on someone's face before, and it literally stole your breath. Baekhyun looked beyond terrifying like he was ready to set the entire world on fire just to watch whoever had hurt you burn with it.

He reaches his hand up to touch your neck while growling out, "Who did this to you?"

Even though he looked like he was ready to stab everyone, his touch on you was still feather-light like a caress. It was enough to make you temporarily forget everything bad that had happened between the two of you.

Jongin steps forward to see what Baekhyun was fussing about, and when he spots your neck, the anger finds his way to his face as well.

"What the fuck happened?" He demands as he looks between you and Minseok.

"I'll tell you guys inside." You say as you turn away to head into the house, but Baekhyun's strong grip stops you.

"Tell me now." He gets out through his barely checked anger.

You turn to face him and grab his hand from your arm, firmly but carefully breaking his hold on you. "It'll be easier to tell everyone at once. Trust me."

You start the walk toward the house, and the three men quickly follow suit. It was quiet at first, everyone processing their own thoughts, but it doesn't stay that way for long.

"You know Junmyeon is going to kill you, right?" Jongin asks Minseok.

The eldest shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"Is that optimism I hear?" Jongin jokes before pausing. "Actually, why does that scare me?"

You walk into the house and head straight for your favorite spot in the living room. The others could worry about grabbing the rest of the guys. You were going to take a minute to yourself before all hell broke loose.

As everyone begins filing into the living room, you make sure to hide your neck with your hair to the best of your abilities. Once everyone is there, your brother looks expectantly between you and Minseok.

"So, what'd you find?"

"You mean, besides the bruises all over your sister's neck?" Jongin chimes in when he notices your attempt to hide them.

Junmyeon looks at Jongin like he's trying to decide if the younger man is joking, but when he takes in the seriousness on Jongin's face, his gaze snaps to you. All of theirs do.

You let out a scoff as you shoot daggers at Jongin before gathering your hair and pulling it behind your head. Junmyeon's eyes bulge as he takes in the marks, and Yixing quickly gets up from the couch and comes over to examine your neck.

You cautiously look over at your brother while Yixing assesses the bruises, and you find the same murderous intent that was present on Baekhyun's face. Great. Now there were two of them.

"Are you having any trouble breathing or speaking?" You nod because you knew he was going to figure it out the second you started talking, and he looks at you in concern. "When this is over, come with me down to medical. You're going to want to ice that, and I want to make sure there's no real damage."

Once you tell him okay, he heads back to his seat, but his troubled gaze remains on you. Junmyeon, on the other hand, immediately turns on Minseok.

"How could you let this happen?! I literally just told you to keep her safe!" Before Minseok can respond, he turns to you. "Who did this to you?!"

You bite your lip. Seven expectant faces watch you, but your eyes fall on Minseok, who gives you a small nod.

"It was Sehun."

You could've heard a pin drop. An ant walking by would've made an actual sound. You almost began to wonder if someone paused the simulation with the way they all froze.

"What did you just say?" Chanyeol asks with a deadly calm.

"Are you seriously saying you not only saw Sehun but he strangled you?" Jongin quickly asks.

Jongdae gets his question in there before you can respond. "Are you sure it was Sehun? It wasn't someone who just looked like him?"

You give Jongdae a disgusted look as anger quickly rises in you, and in the most sarcastic voice you can muster, you say, "Yep. You're right. I forgot the person who literally had their hands around my neck as he tried to choke me to death. My bad."

"Okay. Everyone just hold the fuck on." Your brother shouts.

You run your hands through your hair in frustration. This wasn't going to be easy, and you knew that, but you didn't think that they would straight up dismiss the idea.

The sensation that someone was watching you sweeps over you, and you look over to see Chanyeol eyeing you intently. You meet his stare and wonder what thoughts were running through his head.

"I believe her because this," Minseok says to the group as he pulls out the note, "was put in the P.O. box around the same time."

Junmyeon takes the note Minseok held out to him and reads the numbers out loud. Once the last number comes out, the room explodes with questions, everyone talking over the other in confusion and excitement. It was chaotic enough to give you a headache.

You drop your head down into your hands to rub at the growing pain, like that would make it better, when a hard grip on your arm wrenches your hands away from your face. You look up in alarm and confusion to see Chanyeol's frantic face in front of you. His wild eyes searching yours as he demands to know what else happened with Sehun.

Before you can say anything in response, Chanyeol is ripped away from you and thrown up against the wall next to your chair. You watch with wide eyes as your brother squeezes the front of Chanyeol's throat, putting enough pressure on Chanyeol's vocal cords to cause the man to yell in pain.

"Don't you ever touch my sister like that again, Chanyeol, or I'll fucking kill you."

The parallels between what your brother was doing to Chanyeol and what Chanyeol's cousin had done to you were not lost on you, and you sat there with your mouth open in shock.

The rest of the guys quickly pull the two apart while you sit there frozen, and it takes a few moments for everyone to calm down.

"I'm sorry, Y/N..." Chanyeol sadly says in a weak voice.

"That's not good enough, Chanyeol." Junmyeon snaps at him.

Chanyeol, who had been dropped on the floor by the couch, nods his head and brings his knees up to his chest like he was trying to protect himself from the world. He looked so lost...

"I just don't get why Sehun would strangle you but then leave his help code... and where the hell has he been?" Jongdae asks.

"There's more to the story," Minseok says, giving you an opening to tell them what was going on.

One by one, the members all look over at you, even Chanyeol, who slowly raises his head to you with a wince as he sees the marks on your neck.

"Sehun..." You trail off, not knowing how to say it. "I think Sehun lost his memories..."

You're met with silence until your brother croaks out a "what?".

"He didn't remember me. When I brought up EXO and Chanyeol, he said nothing... He doesn't even remember the warehouse..."

The men slowly took in the information, each one of them silently trying to figure out how this happened. Your eyes find Chanyeol, who looks utterly devastated, and even though he was being a giant dick, your heart went out to him. Chanyeol did everything he could think of to try to find Sehun and bring him home, and when that failed, he lost himself. Now, he had just learned that Sehun didn't even remember him...

"That's not all... He's also working with the Baem."


	9. Part 9

Baekhyun's POV

He was in a daze. Every word his members were saying was going in one ear and out the other. He had been this way ever since he saw you walking up the driveway.

It wasn't because of the feeling that a tight fist had gripped his heart at the sight of you. Not even because of the breath that whooshed out of him when you spoke. No, it was because the second his eyes landed on your neck, he saw red.

His mind blanked out after that. All he knew was that whoever had hurt you was going to pay for it with their life, and Baekhyun was going to take his time doing it.

As much as it killed him, he had to pull his gaze away from you. The purple and red marks that were growing prominent before his eyes drew his brain into a manic rage and he wanted to hurt someone in ways that even disgusted himself.

It became even worse when you told everyone that it was Sehun who had done it. The initial shock wore off quickly as Baekhyun remembered that it wasn't the first time Sehun had his hands around your neck, and the fury quickly came back.

Brother or not, Baekhyun wanted to hurt him.

Baekhyun tried to calm himself down and tune into the discussion being had, but he literally couldn't focus. He had already been frantically worrying about you misunderstanding those girls and now he was ready to murder everyone at even the thought of you being hurt, but what right did he have to do or say anything? He was the one that insisted the two of you couldn't be together.

Not that that was going to stop him from being worried sick about you, regardless. Just because he said that you couldn't be together didn't mean his feelings magically went away. He still cared deeply for you and wanted you to be okay.

Also, now that the immense anger he was feeling was quieting down, his brain could focus on the fact that they found Sehun. He was alive, well, and apparently working with the Baem.

Baekhyun forced himself to take a deep breath through his nostrils once he felt the anger rising again. Not only did he dare to touch you, but he was working with the family that killed his fucking sister.

He closes his eyes at the thoughts going through his head and tries to push aside his feelings, so he could focus on what he needed to do. Once the other member's voice's started coming through, he cautiously opens his eyes. They were discussing theories about what could've happened to Sehun to make him lose his memories. Okay. He could do that.

His eyes automatically find your face, and he startles when he sees that you're watching him. You quickly look away once you're caught, but Baekhyun won't forget the concerned look that was present on your face. Even if you were trying to hide it now.

"What if he was hurt when the warehouse exploded? Maybe he was knocked out by something?"

Junmyeon considers Jongdae's comment for a moment. "That would be my best guess. Unless a Baem member hit him in the head hard enough to knock him out or something. What do you think, Yixing?"

"Severe head trauma can cause retrograde amnesia..." Yixing nods before turning to you. "You said he seemed fine other than no past memories?"

"As far as I could tell... but would he be remembering random things like numbers and locations?" You question.

"Over time, memories can trickle back in, especially ones that were drilled in like the things he knows. Some day, he might be able to get all his memories back, but it's also possible that he never will." Yixing shrugs like he didn't just drop another bomb on them before concluding, "Everyone's brain is different."

Chanyeol's whispered voice breaks through the silence. "Are you saying we might never get him back?"

Yixing looks at the younger man with pity in his eyes. "If it was temporal retrograde, odds are high that he'll get them back. If it's permanent..."

Yixing trails off, but the implication is clear. Their Sehun might be lost to them forever.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Jongin asks, trying to change the subject to something they could actually control.

"We need to come up with a way to communicate with him. Continuous trips to the P.O. box are not going to work, and they heighten all of our chances of being caught." Junmyeon replies, and it's not long before Jongdae throws out a suggestion.

"What if we put a burner phone in there for him to take?"

The boys wait while Junmyeon and Minseok debate the idea before their leader agrees that it's probably the best course of action. Minseok jumps up from his seat and immediately puts out a call to one of his men. The rest of the group slowly disperses, and Baekhyun sees an opportunity to talk to you.

You were speaking to Yixing while rubbing at your neck, and once you turn to follow the other man, he makes his move. As the two of you move past him, Yixing with a small smile and you without a single acknowledgment, Baekhyun quickly reaches out to grab your hand. You freeze and look down at your fingers that he was trying to gently hold on to before your gaze follows the length of his arm, eventually finding his face.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

Your eyes drop to the ground in contemplation before you look back up at him. "Not now."

You pull your hand out of his grasp and turn back to Yixing. Baekhyun takes a step after you but notices the look on the other man's face.

"I have to check out her neck. Just... give her a little time to process everything."

Baekhyun wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to hit something, but he held himself back from doing any of those. He was frustrated, angry, and upset, and he didn't know what to do about any of it.

He turns away from the sight of you walking away from him again and looks up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what his next move would be. He sighs and looks back down, startling at the realization that he's not the only one still in the room.

On the floor in front of the couch sits a very dazed Chanyeol. It was clear Chanyeol had no idea Baekhyun was even there. It was like the man wasn't even mentally present. He was just physically existing. Baekhyun could only imagine what Chanyeol was feeling after the revelations that had been dropped on all of them.

Baekhyun couldn't even begin to fathom how painful it would be to have one of the most important people in his life forget his existence. It had to be worse than death. At least when someone dies, they're just gone. They're not somewhere in the world existing without a single thought about you like you were nothing.

Baekhyun looks back down at his friend, and even though he still wanted to hurt him for the position he put Baekhyun in, the man was more like a brother than anyone else in this world, so he swallowed his pride and took a seat on the floor next to him.

Silence took over because Baekhyun had no idea what to say. How could you even begin to comfort someone in this type of situation? Hang in there, buddy, it'll all be okay? Baekhyun would stab the person who said that to him. Instead, he offered comfort through his presence. Chanyeol wasn't alone; even after all the shit he has said and done, the men weren't going to leave him behind.

"I'm sorry..." Chanyeol mumbles.

Baekhyun tries to contain his surprise at the sudden sound of Chanyeol's voice. Even though his words were spoken quietly, it almost seemed like they were shouted in the silent room.

"I'm sorry for everything. For every horrible word or action, I've ever said or done to you. For forcing you to go out with me every night when you'd literally rather be anywhere else. For making you babysit me night after night. For bringing those girls up to your room... For... For trying to force you to get over Y/N. God, for so fucking much."

Baekhyun stays silent instead of replying. It's been so long since he talked to sober, non-asshole Chanyeol, he almost forgot how to even respond.

A sniffle comes from his right, and he snaps his gaze over to Chanyeol. Tears cascaded down the other man's face as he finally allows himself to break down. Baekhyun opened and shut his mouth a couple times before deciding to stay quiet a little longer. Chanyeol needed to get this out of his system.

The next moment he hears Chanyeol mumbling about Sehun not remembering him and how he's lost him. Baekhyun drops his head back against the couch as he listens. He took a couple of deep breaths because the longer he listened, the more he wanted to cry himself.

"I've lost everyone... I've driven every important person in my life away..." He continues, his deep voice cracking, and Baekhyun couldn't stay silent any longer.

"You still have me, and even though you've done some pretty shitty stuff, I'm not going anywhere."

Sehun's POV

The Baem were starting to become suspicious of Sehun's actions. Especially after he managed to ditch the person who was following him twice, but he didn't think they knew he had leaked any of their information to their rivals, so for now, he was safe. Relatively.

Yesterday, he had been able to sneak away again and find his way back to that P.O. box he had used to communicate with EXO, and to his surprise, he found a phone in there. He didn't know what he had been expecting to find, but a phone made sense. They needed to be able to communicate without traveling back and forth to the city.

There was one number saved in the phone, and if Sehun had to guess, it was probably Junmyeon's or Minseok's, since they were the two highest people, but now what? Were they supposed to call each other? Should they meet up? Could he even get away from the Baem again to meet up?

"Yo, Sehun. Have you listened to a word I've said?"

Sehun is dragged out of his thoughts by Jaesuk's question, and he looks over at him with a shrug. "Sorry, man, what's up?"

Jaesuk stops tinkering with the gun he was cleaning and looks at Sehun questioningly. "Are you good? What's got you so distracted?"

Sehun studies the man in front of him for a moment, wondering what all Jaesuk knew. Did he know the Baem were going to kill him after they were finished using him?

As much as it scared Sehun, he heavily relied on Jaesuk. He would almost even call him a friend. Jaesuk had stuck up for him a lot amongst the Baem members. He would shut the people who made snide comments to Sehun up and get revenge on the ones who tried to mess with him. If Sehun had willingly joined the Baem, he knew he and Jaesuk would be super close.

However, Sehun wasn't here willingly. Well, now he was, but not originally. Which means Jaesuk and him were on opposite sides. Jaesuk had to know he was a member of EXO... and because he was a human with freaking feelings, it kind of hurt that Jaesuk was probably playing him.

Was anything in the friendship he developed with Jaesuk real? Or was he just playing the role he had been given? Either way, Sehun had to know.

"You were told to watch me, weren't you?"

Jaesuk stiffens and carefully searches Sehun's face. It felt like an eternity before he gave him a small, curt nod, admitting to the accusation.

Sehun takes a deep breath, knowing damn well he was in dangerous territory and that Jaesuk could out him at any moment, but he takes a chance anyway.

"What else do you know?" He asks, and Jaesuk meets his stare before replying.

"What else do you?"

Y/N's POV

You had been avoiding everyone for the past couple of days because you needed space. From all of them. From everything. You even went as far as asking your brother to let you pause your training for a couple of days. Of course, he said no, and when you attempted to use your neck as an excuse, he gave you an incredibly dirty look. Somehow, in the end, he took pity on you and let you off the hook, but now it was time to get back to reality.

You open your bedroom door to go find your brother and are shocked to find Chanyeol standing in your doorway about to knock. He had the same broken look on his face as he did the last time you saw him, right after you shattered his world.

He clears his throat before saying, "Can we talk?"

Wordlessly, you step aside and allow him to enter your room. He slowly walks in as he looks around your room like he hadn't been in there 50 times before, then cautiously takes a seat on your bed.

You quietly shut the door because whatever is about to be said in here is between the two of you, and you didn't want anybody to interrupt you. Once you turn back around, you make your way over to your bed and sit down next to Chanyeol, just like old times.

"I've said and done some pretty horrible shit," he starts, "and I don't even know how to begin apologizing to you."

"You know, I kind of understand what you're going through... and I'm relieved I can finally talk to you about it."

He looks over at you in confusion, wondering how on Earth you could understand what's he going through.

"Hello? Long lost sister of your leader? We both thought that the other one was dead for years? Ring a bell?"

Chanyeol's mouth drops open as he realizes that you were right. Although neither of you lost your memories, you could relate to everything else, right down to the very same group being involved in it.

"I wish you would've let one of us in, you big oaf. We might've been able to help you at least a little bit."

Your words cause Chanyeol to lightly scoff at his ignorance, and you fight the tiny part of you that wants to smile. There was still a lot more to discuss.

"I'm such an idiot. I've been so wrapped up with my own thoughts and feelings and feeding my own selfish needs that I never once stopped and considered the rest of you." Chanyeol pauses and shakes his head. "I've treated you all like shit. Especially you and your brother, and even Baekhyun..."

"Hey..." You put your hand on his shoulder to try to keep him anchored to the conversation and not drift back into his thoughts. "You're owning up to it now, and, honestly, that's the most I can ask for. I forgive you, Chanyeol because I've been you. I've been in that deep, dark place. We all have, and I know we're all willing to help you out of there. You just have to let us in."

"How?" He whispers. "How can you and Baekhyun just forgive me like that?"

Something about the way he kept bringing up Baekhyun was starting to nag at you. Yeah, he said some stupid things to him, but he said it to all of the boys, so why specifically bring him up? Not to mention, Baekhyun still hung out with Chanyeol regularly. Although most of the time it was so Chanyeol wouldn't get himself killed...

"I told you why I forgive you... but... why do you keep bringing up Baekhyun? What did you do that was bad enough for you to think he wouldn't forgive you?"

Chanyeol looks away, ashamed, and if he didn't have your full, undivided attention before, he certainly did now.

"Besides, nearly blackmailing him to go out with me every night?" Chanyeol slowly looks at you, and you can see the guilt etched all over his face. "I kept pushing him to get over you."

You search his eyes, trying to pull whatever he was trying to tell you out of his brain.

"I'm the one who brought those girls up to his room. Not him. I was trying to get him to move on from you... You just happened to catch him trying to get rid of them..."

At this point, you didn't even know if you were still breathing. Baekhyun didn't bring those girls to his room... Chanyeol did. Baekhyun was completely innocent in all of it, and you immediately thought the worst about him... You never even gave him a chance to explain any of it... You just pushed him away multiple times instead... and now you didn't know if you had just pushed him away for the final time.


	10. Part 10

Junmyeon’s POV

“If we attack these two buildings immediately, they’ll be forced to stop their shipments and scramble to find new routes that haven’t been compromised yet.”

Junmyeon considers Minseok’s plan as they go through strategy after strategy in regards to the map Sehun had sent them. The members had all been coming up with possible scenarios and outcomes for when they attacked the Baem’s properties. Currently, he, Minseok, and Jongin were in his office running through their 15th plan. They weren’t satisfied enough with any of them.

Junmyeon welcomed the distraction when he heard a knock on his door because his mind was becoming mush. He sits back as Baekhyun walks in to discuss something with Jongin. Junmyeon studies the younger men as they animatedly discussed whatever it was.

He had known Baekhyun for close to seven or eight years, and he had always liked him. Baekhyun had been so full of life before his sister was killed, and after, he tried to keep up with the life he previously had, but it had become darker and more twisted. He had become darker, just like the rest of them.

Baekhyun once lived the party lifestyle: girls, booze, and drugs. He lived hard and wanted to party harder, but it had become clear to Junmyeon that it wasn’t the life Baekhyun really wanted. He was just filling a void within that he didn’t know how else to fill. That was until you came along.

It was so subtle at first that Junmyeon almost didn’t notice it. Baekhyun had started going out less, stopped bringing girls home, and hung around the house more. He became more curious about you and more interested in who you were. It was almost like he was drawn to you, and Baekhyun himself didn’t even realize it.

Junmyeon truly noticed Baekhyun’s actions and thoughts towards you when you were kidnapped by the Baem. Nobody helped him out more with the search and rescue than Baekhyun did. The pair spent countless hours strategizing ways to save you while Minseok tried to keep the two of them level headed. Junmyeon pushed everything he was noticing at the time to the side because, obviously, there were more important things, but now… How did he feel about whatever was going on between you and Baekhyun?

Well… he didn’t know how to feel about it…

As your older brother, he wanted you to have nothing but the best and be with someone who would move mountains for you. Deep down, he knew Baekhyun would move heaven and hell for you if he could figure out a way; however, Junmyeon didn’t think Baekhyun was good enough for you. This wasn’t a fault on Baekhyun’s part because Junmyeon would always think there was nobody on this Earth that would be good enough for you.

That being said… there was almost nobody else on this entire planet that he would really trust more with you than Baekhyun. Minseok was really the only other person that came to mind, and that was because he was Junmyeon’s second.

The only thing that was really pissing Junmyeon off was Baekhyun’s back and forth with you. He clearly wants to fucking be with you, so what’s stopping him? Junmyeon was suddenly determined to find out.

“I need everyone to leave,” he says before looking at Baekhyun. “Except you, Baekhyun. We need to talk.”

Junmyeon notices the confused expressions on Minseok and Jongin’s faces, and the startled one on Baekhyun’s, as the men begin standing up and heading towards the door. Baekhyun watches as they leave the office, shutting the door behind them. A worried expression sits on his face before one of defiance and determination takes over.

“Sit.” Junmyeon orders, gesturing to the chair in front of him.

Baekhyun slowly sits in the seat and then meets Junmyeon’s stare head-on, which Junmyeon respected. He waited a moment to see if the younger man would question what this was about, but they both already knew.

“Stop messing with my sister and choose.”

Baekhyun looks down at his hands in his lap, fidgeting with his fingers. “I did choose.”

“The wrong thing.” Junmyeon snaps, causing Baekhyun’s head to jerk up, his eyes wide and confused.

“I… what?”

Junmyeon slowly starts speaking, gathering his thoughts as he goes. “I know you care about her and that you have feelings for her… If it’s because of me… I won’t stop you…”

Baekhyun opens and closes his mouth a few times in shock. Clearly, he didn’t think Junmyeon would approve of the two of you being together. Honestly, Junmyeon was, kind of, shocking himself, but after the conversation the two of you had where you poured your heart out to him, he knew that it truly had nothing to do with him. If Junmyeon was one of the things stopping Baekhyun from being with you, then he wanted to change that.

“I’d rather her be with someone I can 100% trust, and that’s you. I’m giving you my blessing… so to speak.”

Baekhyun was clearly flabbergasted as he stuttered out a “thank you”, but Junmyeon could still sense the hesitation behind his eyes, and that confirmed what Junmyeon was afraid of. He wasn’t the only reason.

“What?”

Baekhyun looks off to the side of the room as he chews on his bottom lip. Junmyeon knew that look, and the only way to describe it was that he was fighting his inner demons. Baekhyun finally turns back to Junmyeon, and Junmyeon has to hide his shocked expression as he sees tears building up in Baekhyun’s eyes.

“I’m terrified…” Baekhyun whispers. “I kill people on a weekly basis, yet letting myself love your sister is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done.”

A tear spills over his cheeks, but he doesn’t even notice as he continues. “With everything that happened with Jisoo and Minhyuk… I can’t risk that happening to Y/N… I would rather die. I couldn’t go on knowing I was the end of her. I wouldn’t want to. She… means everything to me.”

The sincerity in Baekhyun’s voice makes it hard for Junmyeon to breathe, and he knows, with everything in him, Baekhyun’s the one for you. The only person he will ever approve of.

However, Junmyeon remembered all of the horrible things that happened to Jisoo and Minhyuk. He remembered Baekhyun’s state during that time, and he knew he would be even worse if the same thing happened to you. He knew it would be the end of Baekhyun. Hell, it’d be the end of Junmyeon too. There was no way either of them would survive that.

“Baekhyun… She’s my sister. She’s the daughter of one of EXO’s leaders. She will always be a target, whether she’s with you or not…” Junmyeon reminds him before trying to turn it into a joke. “If anything, they’ll be taking you to get to her.”

Baekhyun nods his head, agreeing with everything Junmyeon was saying, but missing the joking undertones of his voice. Junmyeon sighs, feeling like he’s close to a breakthrough, but he can’t get to it.

“It’s okay to be scared…” He softly says. “But living life out of fear isn’t living… Both of you are going to die someday… Why not spend the small amount of time we’re here together?”

Baekhyun looks at him, really looks at him, and Junmyeon holds his breath. He watches as a small light grows in Baekhyun’s eyes, and a small smile fights its way onto his face. It was like someone finally turned the lights on in a once abandoned home.

“Hyung…” Baekhyun calls him for the first time in years. “I’ve gotta go.”

Y/N’s POV

You don’t know how you ended up wandering down to the living room, but here you were, standing next to your favorite spot. The cozy chair next to the window.

Your thoughts were stuck on what Chanyeol had told you earlier in your bedroom. About him being the reason behind those girls with Baekhyun, and how you automatically assumed the worst about him… None of it was Baekhyun’s fault, and you should’ve known that. You should’ve trusted your gut when it told you Baekhyun wouldn’t do something like that to you.

A noise comes from down the hall, and you turn apprehensively toward it. You hold your breath as the sound of someone running nears you, and you quickly try to decide if you should be prepared to fight or not. Why the hell else would someone be running around here unless there was some type of trouble?

Surprise stalls you when you see Baekhyun run breathlessly around the corner, his eyes wild and determined. Once he spots you, he immediately turns to you.

“There you are!”

You take a step toward him, wondering what the heck was going on. Was someone injured? Did someone’s mission fail? Was it Sehun?

“What’s wrong?”

Instead of answering you, he takes a deep breath and stalks toward you with purpose. There was no other word to describe what was happening. He was looking at you like you were his prey, and all you could do was watch him in bewilderment.

Once he’s in front of you, his hands immediately reach for your head, and he pulls you to him, crashing his lips into yours. Your eyes widen in shock at what was happening, but then you quickly give in to him without question.

This kiss wasn’t like your first one. It was passionate and fueled by desperation. It was filled with everything the two of you wanted to say but couldn’t bring yourselves to speak. It showed all the love, fear, hope, and longing that you both felt. It was soul-shattering… and it ended too quickly.

He pulls away and rests his forehead against yours as the two of you try to catch your breaths. You ignore your tingling lips and the lightheadedness you feel and look into his eyes, noticing him wildly searching your face.

“I love you,” he earnestly speaks. “I love you so fucking much it drives me crazy. I’m terrified about how much you affect me, and the thought of living without you by my side makes me want to not live at all. You’re it for me. No matter how much I tried to fight it. You’re all I want.”

His words overwhelm you and send you into a frenzy.

“I love you too,” you whisper before you bring your hands to the back of his head and pull his lips back to you, kissing him with every emotion that you have.

His hands find your waist, and he tries to pull you impossibly closer. You part your lips, and Baekhyun eagerly slides his tongue into your mouth, stroking and teasing yours. A small moan escapes from you, and it takes everything in Baekhyun to stop himself from tearing your clothes off right there.

A low hum comes from Baekhyun’s throat, which sounds suspiciously like a growl, causing fire to sear through your veins. The two of you were lost in each other, and there was nowhere else you’d rather be.

It takes a couple of seconds for any noises to penetrate the lustful fog that surrounded you two. When it does, you notice the sound of obnoxious throat-clearing coming from the doorway. The two of you reluctantly pull away from each other and breathlessly look over at whoever interrupted you, the thought of killing them only briefly crossing your mind.

“Really? Just right here in the living room for everyone to see?” Minseok says, shaking his head. “Well, sorry to interrupt the porno that was about to be made, but Sehun texted.”


	11. Part 11

Junmyeon’s POV

Junmyeon sat in the meeting room as he waited for the rest of the members to show up. He couldn’t believe that he had actually gotten a text from Sehun. He had been sitting in his office, gathering his thoughts after the conversation with Baekhyun, when the message came through.

Meet me where it all ends. Tomorrow, 1500.

The words were cryptic, and Junmyeon fucking hated riddles but, it was clear, by the date and time on the bottom of the message, that they needed to figure out the location soon. Sehun wanted to meet in 15 hours.

Junmyeon couldn’t help but be confused about the meeting. Was it a trap? How far gone had Sehun become? What if it wasn’t Sehun that had texted him? What if the Baem had caught on to Sehun’s sneaking around? So many scenarios ran through Junmyeon’s mind, and he couldn’t help that his mind always went straight to the horrible thoughts. It’s how he was raised.

He looks at the text again once he notices everyone has finally arrived and they could begin the meeting. It didn’t escape him that you and Baekhyun were the last to arrive; or that both of your lips were slightly swollen. Junmyeon takes a deep breath to calm down. He had been expecting this would happen. He needed to accept that this was his life now.

It did help that you and Baekhyun both had shy smiles on your faces as you walked to two empty seats by each other and that Baekhyun was looking at you like you were his entire world. The other men notice your behavior and quickly look to see Junmyeon’s reaction, but he ignores them. Instead, he chooses to look at Minseok, who offers him a shit-eating grin.

With a sigh, Junmyeon reads the text out loud and looks around the room to gauge their reactions. “Any thoughts?”

Jongin was the first to speak, and he voices the exact thoughts running through Junmyeon’s mind. “Where it all ends? Where what all ends?”

“More like, where does no memory Sehun think it all ends?” Yixing reminds them.

Junmyeon looks around the room as he runs possible locations through his mind when his eyes fall on you. You bit your lip as a curious look sat on your face, making Junmyeon think you had something to add to the discussion but weren’t sure about it.

“Y/N,” Junmyeon calls, getting your attention. “What’s up?”

“Well… it’s just that Sehun has been remembering extremely important information, right?” Junmyeon hmms in acknowledgment, giving you confirmation. “And there’s something that I’ve been curious about myself… What’d you do with Kyungsoo’s ashes, or with any other member’s ashes for that matter?”

Holy shit. That’s it, the place where it all ends.

“You, my beautiful sister, are a freaking genius!”

“Kind of just smacks you in the face when you think about it,” Minseok jokes about their obliviousness.

You look around the room, waiting for someone to actually mention the location but, when they don’t, you clearly get frustrated. “Okay, but where is it?”

“It’s at the tip of the bay,” Chanyeol quietly responds. “There’s woods behind the marina that take you out to a small, private beach. That’s where we pour out the ashes. It’s secluded, and it gives us a place to say goodbye.”

Junmyeon studies Chanyeol. He would have to be blind to not see the small changes that were taking place in the once fiery man. Minseok had told him that Chanyeol had apologized to a couple of people over the past couple of days, you being one of them. Junmyeon was happy that Chanyeol was in a place where he was ready to start making up for his mistakes. It meant that he was close to excepting help.

Jongin smacks his hands together before rubbing them. “So who’s going?”

Noise erupts in the room as every member shouts why they should go or who should be chosen. Junmyeon wasn’t even ashamed to be one of those voices because he was going to see Sehun, and there was not a single person here who was going to stop him.

After a moment, you suddenly jump up from your seat, startling Baekhyun next to you, and yell, “enough!” The room falls silent at your unexpected outburst, and they all look guiltily at each other, especially Junmyeon and Minseok. As the leaders, they shouldn’t have gotten so wrapped up in that.

Junmyeon looks over at you, and his breath catches in his throat. You looked so much like mom at that moment that Junmyeon had to blink a couple of times. Pride courses through him as he sees how easily you commanded the room’s attention. It was almost effortless, and just like our mother.

Our mother was extremely well respected by our parent’s generation. She helped father behind the scenes more than the men knew, but the men listened to her opinion and took her word seriously. She had a powerful aura, and Junmyeon could see that reflected in you. Something had changed in you while you were here, and it seemed like you were ready to command an army.

Junmyeon glances at Baekhyun to see his reaction. A smirk quickly grows on his face once he sees Baekhyun looking at you in awe. Oh yeah, you definitely commanded attention.

“I’ll decide who goes because I’m the only one who has had any real communication with him, and that’s also why I’ll be one of the ones going.”

Junmyeon immediately wants to protest, but he knew you were right. It was a smart move for you to go, as much as he hated to admit it.

“Didn’t he fucking strangle you last time you saw him?” Jongin explodes from across the table, earning glares from both him and Baekhyun, which he immediately notices. “Oh, right. Sehun strangles her, and I get glared at.”

“That was before he recognized me. Now, he remembers who I am. He won’t do it again.”

“Yeah, because if he does it again, I’ll fucking kill him,” Baekhyun mumbles from beside you.

You swat at him before continuing, “Besides me, Jongdae should go for security reasons, and Chanyeol should go… just for his own sanity at this point.”

You tried to be gentle about it, but Chanyeol still flinched at your words. Junmyeon agreed that Jongdae should go, but sending Chanyeol seemed like a ginormous risk to him. The interaction between Sehun and Chanyeol could go real bad, real fast, and then where would Chanyeol’s mental state be?

“I’m going,” Junmyeon states, causing Minseok to immediately shut him down.

“Absolutely fucking not.”

“Sehun is one of my men,” Junmyeon defensively ticks off on his fingers. “My sister is going, and we don’t know how Chanyeol is going to react. I’m going.”

Minseok mimics his motions, getting just as heated as Junmyeon. “You are the leader, and the leader does not go on dangerous missions. This could be a trap, and then your fucking dead. Now what?”

“It’s not a trap,” you insist.

“You have no way of knowing that. You saw Sehun one time. We don’t know what he went back and told the Baem, and we can’t rule out that he switched sides. That would be asinine.”

Junmyeon tries to placate his second, while firmly standing his ground. “Minseok, I know the risks, but I’m going, and that’s final. I’ll be careful. We all will.”

Minseok leans back against his seat and shakes his head in anger. “Fine, but don’t let them finally wipe out your family line. I don’t want to be the leader.”

Minseok’s words do cause Junmyeon to pause for a moment. If this is a trap, and both you and he are going, your family line could be wiped out. However, Junmyeon didn’t want to believe that it was. He didn’t want to think about Sehun suddenly switching sides, so he would just have to hope for the best and protect your life with his own if it came down to it.

Y/N’s POV

You walk out of the meeting feeling light and hopeful for the first time in a very long time. Baekhyun and you were finally together, you were going to see Sehun tomorrow, and EXO actually listened to what you had to say and went along with your idea. Things were starting to come together, and it was almost like you could finally take a deep breath.

You make your way up to your room to get changed for a quick sparring session with Jongin. The two of you had agreed at the end of the meeting that it would be smart to train tonight and get prepared for tomorrow. What you didn’t expect was for Baekhyun to come up behind you and drag you the rest of the way to your room.

A giddy feeling erupts throughout your whole body as you allow him to pull you into your bedroom and slam the door shut behind you. Immediately, he pushes you back against the hardwood door and attacks your lips with his own. Your hands quickly go to the back of his head and tangle into his hair as you open your mouth to allow him in.

His hands grip your hips roughly as he grinds his hardening member against you. A whimper escapes from you as the delicious feeling drives you almost mad. You had wanted this for a long time, wanted to be with Baekhyun longer than you really knew, and now you would finally have your chance.

“I’m so happy I get to fucking kiss and touch you whenever the hell I want,” he mumbles against your lips before attacking them again.

His words cause you to moan into his mouth, and he pulls away at the sound. His eyes, filled with lust and need, are darker than you’ve ever seen them, and you feel yourself becoming wet.

Baekhyun suddenly turns, pulling you with him, and tosses you down on the bed. A smirk grows on his face as he climbs on top of you, spreading your legs with his knees, and starts sucking on your neck. His hands make their way under your shirt, and his hands trail up your side causing goosebumps to erupt over your skin.

You were about to fall into a world of pure bliss when a banging starts on your door.

“Ignore it,” Baekhyun mumbles against your neck.

“That sounds like a great idea,” you breathily reply.

However, the banging continues, and you can tell the person on the other side is growing increasingly impatient. Suddenly, you hear Jongin’s booming voice on the other side, pulling you out of the moment.

“So fucking help me, if you two are having sex when you’re supposed to be training, I’ll break this damn door down!”

You pause, realizing all thoughts of training had flown out the window the second Baekhyun touched you.

“We are training, though!” Baekhyun yells back before reattaching himself to your neck.

“Fucking Byun Baekhyun, look how much of a bad influence you are already.” When nobody responds to Jongin, he gets fed up. “Okay! Guess I’ll have to go get the big brother then.”

Baekhyun drops his head down into the crook of your neck and lets out a loud sigh, pulling a giggle from you.

He tenses at the sound before whispering, “We’re not finished here.”

Dropping a kiss on your cheek, he pushes himself off of you and the bed and then holds out his hands for you to take and pulls you up to him. He quickly makes his way to your door and yanks it open, meeting Jongin’s judgy stare.

“Aren’t you the one who always tells us to ‘live a little’?” Baekhyun asks him, leaning on the doorway with his arms crossed.

“Not when there’s a possibility tomorrow is a trap.”

Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders with a grin. “Seems like the best time to me.”

~~~~~~~~~~~ The Next Day ~~~~~~~~~~~

You were anxiously waiting by the front door to leave. The nerves that were flowing through your body made you jumpy and tense. You didn’t know why you were so nervous. Not a single part of you thought this was a trap, but maybe it was just the thought of seeing Sehun again, considering he did strangle you last time. You were just happy Baekhyun wasn’t going because you knew he wouldn’t let go of the fact that Sehun had hurt you. You already had enough to worry about with Chanyeol going.

Once all of you were gathered in the doorway, the men who were staying behind began fussing. Minseok was continuously trying to change Junmyeon’s mind, Jongin was complaining about not going, and Yixing was worrying about one of you being injured.

“If we see the makings of a trap, we’ll get out of there,” Junmyeon assures him the best he can.

Baekhyun steps up to you and lays a hand on your cheek. “You better come back to me. I just got you.”

As he places an innocent kiss on your lips, you hear a couple of the guys making gagging sounds around you. Baekhyun flips them off and gives you another soft kiss on the forehead, causing your brother to groan.

“I’m going to regret giving you two my blessing, aren’t I?”

“You should’ve seen them last -” Jongin starts, but thankfully for you, Yixing covers the younger man’s mouth, so he could no longer talk.

You ignore their antics as your group walks outside and piles into one of their black SUVs. As the vehicle pulls out of your driveway, you all fall silent, each one of you lost in your own thoughts. You glance over at Chanyeol, who shared the backseat with you. His entire body was stiff as stone, and you wondered how he was doing.

You didn’t want to break the silence of the car, but you wanted to let Chanyeol know you were there for him. You notice his hands splayed out on the seat in between you, and gently place your hand down on top of his. He flinches at the contact before turning his hand over and grabbing yours in a death grip. That was when you knew he was terrified.

Once you drive past the marina, you take a deep breath to try to calm down your racing heart, and once you pull to a stop at the edge of the woods, your throat dries up. You seriously hope this wasn’t a mistake, and you just led the people you cared about into trouble.

“Don’t get scared now, Wonder Girl. You wanted to be here.”

Ignoring Jongdae’s words, you follow your brother into the woods, Chanyeol and Jongdae trailing behind you. You knew the guys were looking around the area, searching for any hints of an ambush, but you couldn’t bring your mind to focus on that at the moment. You instead focus on the happiness that begins blooming inside you due to being surrounded by nature. The walk to the beach wasn’t long, maybe five minutes in total, but you would never know that there was a sprawling city not far behind you.

It was quiet and calm as your group got closer to the water. The only sounds greeting your ears were waves crashing on the shore, seagulls squawking near the water’s surface, and the birds chirping in the trees. It helped your nerves relax, and you took a deep breath of the salty, fresh air.

Your group breaks through the tree line onto the sandy beach, and you take in the expansive water in front of you. You can tell the guys are scanning the shore for a familiar figure, and you know once they spot him due to Chanyeol’s quiet gasp, followed by his whispered voice.

“It’s Sehun.”


	12. Part 12

Sehun’s POV

He stared blankly at the water as he tried not to let his nervous thoughts consume him. The sound of the waves crashing onto the shore, and the slight breeze that rustled his jacket, helped calm his racing heart while he waited for EXO to show up.

He did everything he could to make sure that he wasn’t followed, especially since he didn’t know who or how many members of EXO would be meeting up with him today. Jaesuk helped give him a cover story, telling Minho that he needed a shipment picked up from some boat that was coming in this afternoon. Sehun didn’t ask questions when Jaesuk told him about his idea. Instead, he gratefully accepted Jae’s help, and luckily for both of them, Minho believed the made-up scenario.

Sehun had truly lucked out when the Baem paired him up with Jaesuk. They just so happened to stick him with the one member that was ready to bring them their downfall. To say Sehun was shocked when he found out was an understatement, but it turns out, confronting Jaesuk that day was one of the best things Sehun had ever done.

\------------------------------------

“What else do you know?”

“What else do you?” Jaesuk asks him cautiously.

Sehun was nervous, but he had already made the first move, so he might as well dive in headfirst.

“I know I’m not a Baem member…” Jaesuk lets out a hum of acknowledgment but otherwise stays silent. “…And I know I’m a member of EXO.”

At the mention of EXO, Jaesuk quickly scans their surroundings. He checks to see if anyone was within earshot before looking back at Sehun. “Took you long enough.”

Sehun freezes at his words. Surely he had heard him wrong. There was no way Jaesuk was waiting for him to realize he was a part of EXO, right?

“What?” Sehun asks the other man with bewilderment.

“I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to figure it out.”

Sehun stares at Jaesuk dumbfoundedly. What the heck was happening right now? Why was Jaesuk so willingly discussing this with him? Why was he waiting for him to realize the truth about who he was?

“Are your memories back?” Jaesuk curiously asks. When Sehun shakes his head no, Jae’s brows furrow. “How did you figure it out then?”

Sehun debated if it was smart to tell him. He still didn’t know what the man’s intentions were, but Sehun mostly trusted Jaesuk. Maybe that was stupid of him, but his gut told him it was the right thing to do.

Sehun thought about it for another moment before deciding. He was going to tell him, but he was going to leave you out of it. EXO was one thing, but the Baem still wanted you for leverage.

“I found a way to get into contact with them… I think I’ll leave it at that for now, though.”

Jaesuk studies his face before nodding. “Smart. There are not many people you can trust around here.”

“Are you going to tell them I know?” Sehun cautiously asks, not even realizing he was holding his breath.

“No.” He responds, surprising Sehun for the third time tonight. “You know… I actually like you, Sehun. You’re kind of cold, but that’s to be expected… If this were a different world, I think the two of us would’ve caused a lot of trouble together.”

Sehun’s mouth drops open at the compliment, and he quickly shuts it. Mafia men weren’t supposed to be emotional or sentimental. At least, they weren’t supposed to show it.

“Now what?”

Jaesuk grins mischievously at him. “Now, I’m going to help you get the fuck out of here.”

\-------------------------------------

Sehun hears movement behind him, drawing him back into the present. When he turns, he’s met with four figures. You and three men who looked like they were seeing a ghost. Which, if Sehun thought about it, they kind of were.

Sehun nervously swallows before taking the first step toward you.

Y/N’s POV

You immediately notice the shocked silence around you as Sehun cautiously approaches the group. The younger man offers you a small smile while his eyes dart around the other group members. Once he’s within five feet of you, he stops.

You glance at the men around you, taking in Chanyeol’s frozen state while you do. Jongdae’s eyes curiously look Sehun up and down, while Junmyeon takes a step toward Sehun before stopping himself. If you had to guess, your brother wanted to see if the man in front of him was truly there, or if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Finally, Junmyeon breaks the silence with a sad voice. “I’d hug you right now, Sehun, but I don’t think you know who I am.”

Sehun takes in the leader’s words, and you can see him trying to carefully choose his. Gently, he says, “I know who you are… I just don’t remember who you are to me…”

“So, it’s true,” Jongdae breathes. “Your memory is gone.”

Sehun nods in thought. “Mostly. I’m remembering little things here and there, obviously,” looking pointedly around at the location he had chosen, “but the majority of it is gone.”

“How did you end up with the Baem… and what made you contact us?” Your brother asks. He tried to sound curious, but you wondered if this was his way of testing Sehun to see where his loyalties lie.

Sehun launches into his story of waking up at the warehouse and the Baem finding him there and claiming he was one of their own. He told the group how he felt wrong while he was with them and like he wasn’t supposed to be there. How he felt connected to EXO and when he overheard the Baem’s plan of killing him once he got his memories back. Sehun spilled everything like he hadn’t had anyone to talk to in months.

You couldn’t imagine how terrified he had been. How scary it would be to wake up in a wrecked warehouse and not being able to remember who you were or how you even got there. Then spending time with a mafia group when you know their plan is to off you the second they find you useless. Although, you could relate to the last one a little, considering you had no idea what EXO’s intentions were when you came to them.

“Well, I’m relieved you are alive and okay… We all are.” Jongdae slowly says while he fidgets with the zipper on his jacket. It was clear he didn’t like being away from his surveillance equipment for too long and wanted to go back to the vehicle. “Now that I’ve seen you with my own eyes. I’ve got to get back and make sure everything is still okay.”

As Jongdae walks away, Junmyeon immediately starts telling Sehun that they’re going to take him back to EXO. That it was time for Sehun to come home with them, but you aren’t surprised when the younger man quickly refuses the idea. He had refused you when you tried to get him to come home the day you saw him too.

“Why?” Junmyeon asks in bewilderment, making Sehun shrug.

"This may sound crazy, but… I feel like there’s something I still need to do. I don’t know what, but it’s the same feeling that I got when I knew I had to contact you. Also, I want to take the Baem down for good.”

You run Sehun’s words through your mind and try to figure out what it would be that Sehun felt like he had to do. Sehun was no fan of the Baem, especially after they killed his cousin, but what could he do from within Baem territory that he couldn’t do from EXO’s compound?

“Well, that’s something we all want,” your brother assures him. “That information you gave us has been incredibly useful. We’ve already got the plan forming, and, let’s just say, it’ll be over soon… Especially if we can get a little help from the inside.”

You had stayed back while the boys spoke with Sehun since this was their first time seeing him in months, and you already had. Now that they were speaking about the plan against the Baem, you felt like it was time to join the conversation.

“Sehun… Have you seen the leaders at all? Two of them were able to escape the first time we attacked… We need to find them before we can put the plan into motion.”

Sehun pauses at your words and looks back at you with wide eyes. “That’s it. That’s what I need to do.”

You and Junmyeon share a look, wondering if you were helping Sehun remember something.

“I’ll find the leaders who escaped while I still have a chance, and then I’ll come back to EXO.”

Junmyeon looks like he wants to object before he sighs and lets it go. “Don’t do anything that’s going to put yourself into danger.”

“I have someone inside who can help me. Don’t worry.”

You try to hide the shock you feel at his words, but it was too difficult, and you knew it was written all over your face. How could Sehun willingly work with your enemy? “A Baem member?”

“I trust him,” Sehun nods, looking back and forth between you and your brother and taking in your reactions. “So, please trust me.”

Junmyeon must’ve been feeling the same way you were, but he was having a little more difficulty attempting to hide it than you were. The man looked like he was having an aneurism. “You’re… okay… okay…”

You quickly bring your hand up to rub your brother’s back and calm him down at the thought of Sehun trusting a Baem member. “If you have someone you can trust… Good. Use them.”

The slight breeze pushes your hair into your face, and you flip it back with the shake of your head. That’s when you realize you had forgotten Chanyeol was even there. The tall man still stood next to you but was a complete frozen statue. You take in his shaken appearance and ghostly pale face before Sehun interrupts your observation.

“I’m sorry for… strangling… you,” he awkwardly tells you.

You look back at him, startled that he would randomly say that, and wave him off with an “it’s fine” before your brother can step in and say anything about it. Instead, you bring your focus back to Chanyeol. Now was his time to talk to Sehun, and he was either in shock or frozen in terror.

You look back at Sehun to see that his focus had also finally fallen on the statue of a man. All your mind could do was wonder if Sehun knew they were cousins or if he knew how close they were.

Noticing the silence, Chanyeol blinks a couple times before looking between the three of you. When he realizes he’s the object of everyone’s attention, his eyes widen and snap toward you in panic. He opens his mouth a couple times like he wants to say something, but nothing comes out. His eyes darting between you and Sehun in the process.

Sehun clearly notices the awkwardness of the other man and in a quiet voice, asks, “Are we close?”

That was all it took for Chanyeol to lose it. Tears immediately begin freefalling down his face, while his legs give out on him, and he drops down to the sand.

The moment causes both you and Junmyeon to freeze, while Sehun looks wildly between the three of you. He quickly mumbles out an apology to the man now losing it at his feet, shock taking over his features at the situation. You take a step toward Chanyeol, but he quickly shakes his head once he sees the movement, so you stay still.

“You’re cousins. Well… more like brothers,” Junmyeon tells Sehun. “The two of you have been through a lot together. More than most.”

Sehun slowly nods as confusion and sadness battle for dominance on his face. How horrible it must be to watch someone who deeply cared for you crumble into pieces because you had no idea who they were? Sehun sways a little on his feet like he was trying to decide if he should comfort this stranger or if that would make it worse. His phone suddenly rings, distracting all of you and even quieting Chanyeol down.

Sehun quickly pulls his phone out and turns away from the scene while Junmyeon takes the opportunity to go over to Chanyeol and help him up. When he attempts to grab his arms and bring him to his feet, Chanyeol pushes him off, making Junmyeon stumble in the sand. Your brother sighs and quickly gives up, knowing he’ll get nowhere.

Chanyeol tries to hide a couple sniffles as he stands up from his kneeling position, but they were still audible. Sehun hangs up his phone, but you knew he had seen the entire dilemma between Chanyeol and Junmyeon from his peripheral vision. He furrows his eyebrows, telling you he took in the information but didn’t know how to process it.

“I need to go…” He pauses before pointing between the two men. “But whatever is happening between the two of you, you need to work it out and get it to-fucking-gether. We all need to be on the same page when we take the Baem down, or else we go down with them.”

Sehun turns and walks away, leaving those as his parting words. You stifle a laugh once you realize the youngest just basically told the leader and his cousin to stop acting like children. You look between the two men and see the sheepish and guilty looks on their faces. Sehun may not remember anything, but he certainly still had his “sassy, don’t care” attitude.

Chanyeol lets out a small laugh in disbelief while he watches Sehun walk away. A small smile grows on Junmyeon’s face when he hears Chanyeol’s laughter, even though the younger man had just pushed him off when he was trying to help. The next words that came out of Chanyeol’s mouth had relief flowing through you too.

“That was such a Sehun thing to say.”


	13. Part 13

Chanyeol’s POV

Sehun was alive.

Logically, he knew that Sehun was alive after talking to you but, it wasn’t until he saw him with his own eyes that he actually believed it. The stoic expression, the slightly narrowed eyes, and the tall, lean frame… it was definitely his cousin.  
When he heard Sehun speak, it was like music to his ears. He had never wanted to hear the younger man’s voice more than he did at that moment. In fact, Chanyeol had told Sehun to shut up more times than he could count, but once he heard his voice again, he never wanted him to ever quit speaking.

However, the magical moment was ruined when Sehun had met his eyes. They were the eyes of a complete stranger. Sehun had looked Chanyeol over like he was just another person on the street, and Chanyeol felt like he had lost him all over again.

It was different from when he lost his brother. When Jiho was gone, he was gone. He could properly mourn and grieve for his brother, and he was eventually able to accept his death. With Sehun, he was able to mourn and grieve the loss, but he wasn’t able to move on. There was no possible way he could continue on, knowing his cousin was alive and well somewhere out there in the world without a hint of knowing who he was.

To hear Sehun confirm it all when he asked him if they were close was what broke Chanyeol, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it. Nor was he afraid to drop down to his knees and share his pain with the world because it was too much for him to bear silently.

Although, another thought struck him as he silently sat in the back of the SUV during the ride home. How could he expect Sehun to remember who he was when he couldn’t even remember it himself? He was just as much of a stranger as Sehun was at this point. He could barely remember who he was before he lost Sehun. Now, he was just an asshole with a bad attitude who used his friends like they were nothing to him.

He treated his best friend horribly and disrespected the shit out of his leader. Junmyeon had been there for him when he lost Jiho. He was one of his rocks during that time, and this time around, Chanyeol had thrown nasty comment after nasty comment without caring how it’d affect him. Actually, he wanted Junmyeon to feel the pain he felt. He wanted all of them to, and it disgusted him now.

It wasn’t going to sit right with him until he fixed all of the relationships he ruined. Then, he could move on from this chapter of his life… and there was nothing he wanted more.

The bump of the gravel drive to their home broke him out of his thoughts, and Chanyeol knew it was now or never. He wanted to make things right before they ended the Baem because after wasn’t an option. After wasn’t guaranteed. He wasn’t going to live the rest of his life regretting his final words to anyone or leave them behind with unforgiving memories of himself.

The second Jongdae shuts off the vehicle, and everyone reaches to undo their seatbelts, Chanyeol speaks.

“Junmyeon… Can we talk?”

All movement in the SUV ceases, and he can see from his peripheral that you and Jongdae were staring at each other with wide eyes. However, Chanyeol’s gaze remains fixed on the leader.

Junmyeon searches Chanyeol’s face, undeniably trying to hide the pity and sadness he felt erupting onto his own, before nodding his head. You and Jongdae quickly take that as your cue to leave and hop out of the vehicle, leaving the pair there in silence.

Chanyeol didn’t know how to begin the conversation or what his thoughts even were, and Junmyeon certainly wasn’t going to be the first to speak. He had already tried to reach out to Chanyeol for months.

“An apology will never be enough for the things I’ve said or for my actions, but I’ll start there anyway. Junmyeon… I’m so incredibly sorry… I disrespected your authority. I’ve broken your rules… My actions would’ve easily gotten me killed by other bosses, but you always let me slide. I’m sad to say that I don’t know if I were in your position I’d do the same, so thank you for being patient with me and attempting to understand me.”

Junmyeon gives a small nod. “Thank you… Thank you for finally saying those words to me, because I admit, I was terrified I’d never hear them from you. Not because I didn’t think you’d ever say them to me, but because I was beginning to think I’d never get the chance to hear you say them at all…” Junmyeon admits, swallowing down the sudden emotions he was feeling. “I really thought we were going to lose you, Chanyeol, and after Kyungsoo and Sehun, I couldn’t go through that again so soon. I don’t care about the stupid shit you said or did any more. It doesn’t mean anything to me. All I care about is you being okay.”

Chanyeol looks away at his words, knowing he doesn’t deserve them but expecting them from Junmyeon anyway. That’s the type of leader he was, and he was a damn good one.

“There is one thing that you said a while ago, though, and I need you to know my feelings on it.”

Chanyeol looks at him curiously, wondering what the one thing was that stuck with Junmyeon.

“You and Sehun are more important to me than I can express, and just because my sister is here doesn’t change that. Finding out what happened to Sehun was always the top priority for me. I never wanted to gain one and lose the other”

Chanyeol remembers the harsh words he threw at Junmyeon when he claimed Junmyeon no longer cared about Sehun because he had gotten you back. He had regretted them at the time, but the anger he was feeling was so intense, he was happy to speak them. Now, the regret was tenfold, especially knowing how hard Junmyeon worked to try to find Sehun. He wanted those words to disappear from both of their memories.

“I know… I knew then, but I didn’t care… I wanted you to feel what I was feeling, and that wasn’t fair of me… I hate that I ever said that to you. I hate that those words were ever able to leave my mouth… I need you to know that I couldn’t be happier we got Y/N back. We all knew what we were risking, and I know we all would do the same damn thing as before, even knowing the consequences.”

Junmyeon turns in the passenger seat and faces the windshield. They both needed a minute to collect themselves and let the pain and hurt they felt leave them. They had to accept the words spoken in the SUV, process them, and let the relief flow through them at the fact that they could finally move on from this.

Once that was done, Junmyeon turns back around and faces Chanyeol with a grin. “Ready to destroy the Baem and finally get payback for everything they’ve done to us?”

Chanyeol felt a matching smirk grow on his. “I couldn’t be more ready.”

Sehun’s POV

The second he got back to the Baem compound, he knew something was up. People ran around everywhere, and the joking attitude that some of the members usually held was replaced with severe expressions and discussions. When Jaesuk called Sehun and told him he needed to come back, he didn’t know what he had been expecting, but it wasn’t this.

“Make yourself useful, maggot.” One of the Baem members says as he shoulder checks him while walking by.

Sehun slowly looks over at the shorter man whose face held a growing sneer. On the inside, Sehun froze, but on the outside, he remained impassive. Were they even bothering to pretend he was one of them anymore? They had always been rude to him, but never this full of contempt… Sehun tries to calm his suddenly racing heart. Had they found out about his meeting with EXO?

“Get fucking lost, Choi.” Jaesuk comes up behind him, saving him like he always does.

The man turned his sneer on Jaesuk, which just caused him to snort quietly beside Sehun.

“Why can’t your little bitch speak for himself?” The man smugly says, like he actually thought he did something with his comment.

Jaesuk tongues the inside of his cheek as he glares at the other man. “Don’t think I won’t stab you in the eye with your own knife, Choi. Actually, they’re in there fighting right now. Why don’t we go over there and have a turn?”

Choi visibly pales a shade at Jaesuk’s words before he brings back the cocky smirk and tries to hide whatever fear he momentarily felt. He lets out a scoff and quickly begins walking away, ignoring Jaesuk’s words behind him.

“Awe, you’re running away from a fight? Who’s the little bitch now?”

Sehun turns to face Jaesuk, already moving on from the encounter that was just had. “What the hell is going on?”

Jae gives him a dreadful look before saying, “The leaders are here. Something is about to go down.”

Sehun instantly perked up at his words. The freaking Baem leaders that he was just about to search for had just fallen into his lap? He thought it’d be way harder to find them. He certainly wasn’t expecting them to randomly show up to the compound.

“They’re testing everybody to see where their skill sets are. You’re up next for sparring.”

Sehun’s eyes widen, and he blinks a couple of times, trying to remember when the last time he fought was. He hadn’t been made to fight since the Baem brought him here, which means it’s been at least a couple of months. He was about to get his ass handed to him in front of everyone.

“Wait. What do you mean something’s about to go down?”

Jaesuk quickly looks around to make sure nobody was within hearing distance. When he’s satisfied there’s no one close enough, he says, “I haven’t been able to find out yet, but I’m pretty sure they’re planning an attack on EXO, so whatever EXO’s plan is, I hope they do it soon.”

Sehun didn’t have time to process this information because two seconds later, the doors to the gym they were standing outside of open up, and a burly man walks out.

“Oh Sehun, you’re next. Let’s go.”

Sehun tries to swallow, but his throat became so dry that it just proved to be painful. He takes a deep breath and starts walking towards the man.

“Good luck?” Jae shouts at his back.

Sehun flips him the finger before following the gruff man into the gym. There weren’t many people in the room with him, just Minho and two of his men, who Sehun had grown used to seeing, and two other men Sehun had never seen before.

He knew with a single look that they were the leaders just by the way they held themselves. They had an air of superiority and had a cold demeanor like you should bow down at their feet, and if you don’t, they’ll break your arm. They eyed Sehun, not even bothering to hide their disgust but, Sehun quickly looks past them toward the mats where his opponent was waiting.

The guy easily had 30 kg on Sehun, and the odds of Sehun walking away from this unscathed plummetted. He internally groans, dreading the beating coming his way.

“What’s your specialty?” He hears one of the leaders ask him.

Sehun turns toward him with a blank stare. “Weapons.”

“Have you ever fought a day in your life?”

Sehun knew they were baiting him, testing to see if he had any memories back. He wasn’t stupid. “Not in the past couple of months.”

“And before that?”

Every eye in the room carefully watches him to see if he’ll slip up about remembering his old life. The joke was on them, though, because he still didn’t have his memories back.

He shrugs carelessly before saying, “You’ll have to tell me. I’m sure Minho has told you about what happened.”

“Right. The one who lost his memories… Well, let’s see if your body remembers.” He smirks, gesturing towards the mats.

Sehun walks onto the mats trying to hide his nervousness. He bounces on his toes and rolls his shoulders back as his opponent watches him with a grin and raised brow. They both meet at the center of the mat, and Sehun pauses, not knowing what to expect. He had never watched the Baem members spar, so he had no idea what they usually did. Did someone tell them to start? Did they just go? Well, he found out two seconds later, when the dude’s fist came right at Sehun’s face.

He managed to duck out of the way and get behind the other guy, but his opponent was quick to turn around and follow him. Sehun brought his arms up to protect his face, but his torso was long enough that his opponent found an opening resulting in a strong punch to the gut.

Sehun doubled over in pain and tried to breathe. Fuck, maybe he did suck at fighting. Sehun stood back up and got back into a defensive stance. He didn’t even get the chance to throw a fist because his opponent consistently threw jabs and hooks at him that he kept having to dodge.

“This kid sucks at fighting.”

Sehun lost his precious defensive stance as he focused on the leader’s words and the laugh that follows, and that was his fatal mistake. The other guy threw a hook, catching Sehun in the side of the head and throwing off his balance. He quickly landed on the mat with a grunt, his head already throbbing like he had spent the entire night drinking.

“Alright, that’s enough. We’ve seen what we needed to see.”

Something in Minho’s words made Sehun want to get up and prove himself, and it bothered him that he didn’t know why. He found himself pushing on the mat and trying to stand up, but his opponent also noticed his movements.

He faces Sehun and draws back his leg before kicking Sehun in the head. Hard. “Stay down.”

That was the last thing Sehun remembered.

When he came to a little while later, he found himself in his bunk. Jaesuk was sitting on the bunk across from him, waiting for him to come to.

“Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” he says with a small laugh.

“Fuck you,” Sehun mumbles out.

Jaesuk lets out a loud laugh before handing him a glass of water and some pain medication. Sehun gratefully accepts them and sits up, letting out a curse at the pounding that seemed to surround his entire head as he takes the pills.

“Good news is, they don’t think you got your memories back. The great news is, after that kick you took to the face, they don’t think you’ll ever get them back.”

Sehun chugs the rest of the water in his glass and then sets it on the nightstand in between the two beds. He lays back with another groan, and at least this time, Jae tries to stifle his laugh.

“How did you get the shit kicked out of you so badly?”

“I haven’t fought anyone since that night at the warehouse. I’ll have to spar with Jongin more often - ”

He cuts himself off as he realized what he was saying. He shoots up from his bed and meets Jaesuk’s wide eyes with his own.

Jae’s mouth drops open. “Did you - ”

“I remember everything!” Sehun excitedly says.

Jaesuk smacks Sehun’s leg as he looks around the, thankfully, empty room. “Let the whole damn compound know for god’s sake, and here I thought you got some sense knocked into you.”

His voice was stern, but a smile quickly grew on his face, and Sehun matched it with one of his own.

He remembered everything. His home. His family. Chanyeol. Chanyeol’s brokeness at the beach… and whatever was going on between him and Junmyeon… He shakes his head. He can’t worry about that right now. He needed to focus on taking the Baem down.

“I need you to do something for me.” He waits until Jaesuk nods before saying anything else. “Can you get me all the information you can on the leaders? Addresses, phone numbers, family members, everything.”

Jaesuk thinks about it for a second before he nods his head. “I’ve got a contact higher up that can get some of that information.”

“Whatever you get will be helpful. Jongdae will figure out the rest.”

Y/N’S POV

Another day. Another meeting. It felt like every time you turned around, the guys wanted to have a gathering for something. At least this time, it felt like things were moving forward. It wasn’t a meeting where everyone was continually trying to theorize where Sehun was or what could’ve happened to him. No. You knew exactly where Sehun was.

This time, Junmyeon called a meeting because he wanted everyone to be prepared for what was to come. You originally thought you were ready enough and that you would be informed of the plan when the guys figured it out themselves. When your brother called a meeting and said, “all hell is about to break loose”, you realized they had already set the plan in motion, and you had no idea what it even was.

To say you were irritated that you were kept out of the loop was an understatement.

Junmyeon had made sure to tell you enough to keep you satisfied, but he clearly hadn’t told you everything.

He had shared that a couple of days ago, Sehun had gotten them information from some contact he had in the Baem. He was able to figure out where the Baem leader’s safe houses were located and the routes they had taken to get there. Jongdae checked the accuracy of the information against the information EXO already had and reached out to some of his own contacts as well.

Apparently, it had all checked out, and the information Sehun was able to get was accurate. That was the last thing you had been told about.

Needless to say, when the meeting was well underway, and Junmyeon informs you all that “the message had been sent”, you were very confused.

“What message?”

Minseok looks over at you in confusion before looking back at Junmyeon. “You didn’t tell her?”

At least your brother had the decency to look guilty as he looks from you to Minseok. “It wasn’t something she needed to know at the moment.”

You try to check the irritation that was simmering under the surface and repeat, “What. Message.”

Your brother sighs before answering you. “The night we confirmed the information Sehun sent was accurate, we sent unit members to check out the leader’s safe houses. We had them wait until they were able to take multiple pictures of their families. Then, we sent those pictures to the Baem this morning to make them realize their families aren’t actually safe.”

He had just thrown a lot of information at you at once, and you didn’t know how to process it. “You… threatened their families?”

“Yes. This way, they’ll get spooked and hopefully react irrationally and carelessly. They’ll be reckless, and they’ll make a mistake, which will be good for us.”

Confliction rises in you as you try to truly understand what this means. EXO had just threatened the Baem leader’s families, their wives, and children, and you weren’t entirely thrilled with the idea of kids being involved in all of this.

The entire situation hit way too close to home, and that’s why Junmyeon hid it from you. He just put their leaders in the same position they originally put your parents in. While the idea of the Baem leader’s freaking out in fear of what will happen to their families pleases the sadistic side of you, the fear those children will have once they realize the enemy is coming for them, sent you right back into that closet you hid in as a child.

You remember the terror you felt when your mother hid you in there and when the Baem burst into the room before killing your parents. It wasn’t something you wished on another child. You definitely wished that terror on their parents because you wanted revenge, but not them.

That’s where you and Junmyeon differed because he wasn’t hidden in that closet with you. He wasn’t even home when it all took place, so he could never truly understand, but you knew having someone hurt a child was the last thing Junmyeon would do, so you choose to let it go, for now.

“Y/N.” Your brother calls your name.

You snap your head up, realizing you zoned out. You didn’t even notice that Baekhyun had grabbed your hand and was gently rubbing it. You give his hand a quick squeeze before looking back over at your brother.

“Go get ready to go into the city. You and Minseok are going to meet up with Sehun and tell him what’s going on. He needs to be prepared on his end.”

You absentmindedly nod your head and ignore the annoyance you feel at being told what to do instead of being in on whatever plan they have. You had other things on your mind at the moment.  
——————————————————  
The entire drive to the park you were supposedly meeting Sehun at flew by because you were still lost in your thoughts. You had mostly come to terms with the action your brother had taken, considering it was just pictures that were taken. Minseok had assured you that, as of right now, there were no plans to actually hurt the families. However, you knew things could switch with the snap of a finger, so you tried to mentally prepare yourself for literally anything to happen.

Other than Minseok assuring you they weren’t going to hurt the kids, he stayed pretty quiet and allowed you to take everything in, which you were thankful for. The only other time he spoke up was to let you know you were getting close to the park.

“Is it really safe to be meeting out in the open?”

“No, but there’s a secluded area in the corner of the park where most people don’t go, so we should be fine. Besides, we won’t have to keep hiding much longer. The Baem won’t be much of an issue soon.”

The park was like every other park you’ve seen: there was a large, grassy area where you could lay down blankets and have a picnic, trees scattered throughout the grounds to give shade from the sun, and twisted walking paths, sporadically placed with benches every so often. There were a decent amount of people enjoying the sunny day, either playing with their dogs or jogging around on the paths. That’s when it hits you that you couldn’t even remember the last time you had gone to a park.

You quietly follow Minseok along one of the broad paths, walking only for a few minutes before you come toward the edge of the park. You noticed the secluded area he mentioned right away because it was one you would usually steer clear of any other time.

Giant bushes overgrew in this area, like whoever took care of the park didn’t even want to be over here. Massive trees grew in the corner, providing plenty of unneeded shade for the little bench tucked away here. Alarm bells rang in your head because this was 1000% a place where someone would get attacked, especially at night, but you knew you were safe with Minseok.

The two of you sat on the bench while waiting for Sehun, and luckily you didn’t have to wait long. Maybe five minutes later, you spotted Sehun casually walking toward you. He appeared normal at first, but the closer he got, the more you could see a lot of bruising on his face. Once he came to a stop in front of you, you and Minseok look at him with open mouths.

“I wish I could say ‘you should see the other guy’ but he definitely just kicked my ass, so…”

This was the first time Minseok was seeing Sehun in person, and all he could get out was, “What the hell happened?”

“The Baem wanted me to spar, and since I haven’t done that in months, it didn’t go to great,” he shrugs before smiling, “or maybe it did, depending on how you look at it.”

You and Minseok continue to stare at the taller man in confusion and, when he started pointing at his head, the confusion only grew.

“Apparently getting kicked in the head slid something into place up there…”

Your eyes grew at least double the size, if not triple when you finally understood what he was saying. “Your memories are back?!”

He grins and nods, causing you to bounce up from the bench and wrap him in a hug. His arms tightly close around you, and you can hear Minseok sputtering in shock behind you. You pull away from Sehun and look back at him. His eyes were just as wide as yours were, and his mouth had fallen back open before he quickly shut it.

He narrows his eyes at the taller man before asking, “When’s my birthday?”

Sehun rolls his eyes. “You think I knew your birthday before?”

Minseok gapes at him, and you could’ve sworn a pout was starting to grow on his face, but you knew Minseok would deny that in a heartbeat.

His reaction causes Sehun to let out a laugh. “It’s March 26th, calm down.”

“You little shit,” Minseok swears, pulling him into a tight hug.

With this revelation came new worries, though, and you had to ask, “Now that you have your memories back, are you okay with going back to the Baem?”

Sehun shrugs as he pulls away from Minseok and straightens up. “I got them back a few days ago, and no one’s noticed. That’ll be part of their downfall. They’re so arrogant and cocky. They think they’re three steps ahead of everyone else… So, what’s the plan?”

You turn to Minseok and wait to hear it as well, considering nobody bothered to tell you either.

“We kept your part of the plan pretty light since you didn’t have your memories,” Minseok responds before tilting his head, “and you’re working with a Baem member.”

Sehun slowly nods at his words. “That… would make sense, I guess… but you should know that I trust Jae. He’s been helping me out ever since I got with them, and he’s the one who got me the information on the leader’s.”

Minseok pauses at that little tidbit. “Okay… and I’m very pleased he has done all that, but he’s still a Baem member.”

Sehun shakes his head, but before he can respond, you interrupt them. “Let’s just talk about the plan and get out of here before someone spots us. We can talk about Sehun’s friend choices later.”

Thankfully, they both listen to you and move on from the clearly touchy subject.

“The plan has already been set in motion. We sent the leader’s pictures of their families at their safe houses.”

A light goes on behind Sehun’s eyes, and he lets out a quiet, “Ah, so, that’s why the higher-ups have been freaking out all day.”

Minseok smirks at Sehun. “Then they got the message loud and clear. Good… You’re staying at the main compound, right?” Sehun nods his head, and Minseok continues. “Okay, all I need you to do is find a way to barricade all of the exits tomorrow. Make sure no one can get in or out. Then, get the hell out of there.”

Sehun looks between the two of you in disbelief, and you had to agree because what the hell kind of plan was that? “That’s it?”

“I told you we kept your part of the plan pretty light.”

“Use me,” Sehun angrily says, “I can do more than just barricade some fucking doors.”

“Sehun, we - ”

Minseok is interrupted by the sound of Sehun’s phone ringing. You raise your eyebrows at the familiar situation and wonder who the hell is always calling him when he’s with you.

Sehun pulls out his phone and checks the caller ID. He looks between you and Minseok before pressing the speaker button. “What’s up, Jae?”

“Our covers been blown, Sehun. Whatever your plan is, you need to do it now.”

All three of you stiffen as you listen to the man’s deep voice come through the speaker, his voice holding a slight tremor in it. You hold your breath as you listen to what he says next, your heart beating loudly in your ears.

“They know we’re the ones who betrayed them. They already tortured the little information they could get from my contact before killing him, and now they’re looking for us, so don’t fucking come back here.”

Minseok is the first to break out of the shock you all felt as he quickly dials Junmyeon’s number to tell him what’s going on. As he steps away to talk to Junmyeon, you search Sehun’s face and take note of the shock and fear on it. Clearly, he thought he had more time. They all did.

“How did they find out?”

“I wish I could freaking tell you… They definitely think you have your memories back, and we’re always together, so they connected the dots,” Jaesuk quietly responds. You notice how he sounds desolate and worry that this man that you don’t even know has already given up.

Sehun must’ve sensed the same thing as you because he hurriedly asks, “What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about me… Go back with EXO. Help them do whatever it is they’re going to do and finish these bastards… and Sehun… I hope like hell to see you on the other side of this.”


	14. Part 14

Y/N’s POV

Minseok was recklessly speeding back to the compound, and you were thankful that in your haste, you still remembered to put on your seatbelt. You glance over your shoulder at the backseat every time Minseok makes a sharp turn and catch Sehun trying to stop himself from slamming into the door each time. You knew if he was in the right mindset, he would’ve cussed Minseok out, but judging by the look on his face, he was far from it.

The shocked and fearful look that showed up on his face when he was talking to Jaesuk was still present, and you couldn’t help but wonder if it was fear for himself or Jaesuk. When you had spoken to Sehun at the beach about his Baem friend, you had no indication of how close they were. It was clear to you now, however, that the two had grown closer than you realized. It didn’t really hit you until you heard Jaesuk’s words to Sehun before he hung up.

The Baem man telling Sehun to help EXO do whatever they needed to do, and then to end them… Then him hoping to see Sehun when this was all over… The entire conversation was unexpected; and not something you would’ve ever predicted to come out of a Baem member’s mouth.

“Jesus christ, Minseok.” Sehun grits out as he slams into the door again.

“You should’ve put your seatbelt on, you idiot.” Minseok throws back without sympathy.

“No shit.”

You watch Sehun look around like he was debating if it would be worth it to put his seatbelt on when you were already so close to the compound. In the end, he must’ve said screw it because he sat back with a huff and a tight grip on the door handle.

You notice Minseok glancing at you when he has a small chance to look away from the road, and it makes you nervous. After the third glance, you finally ask him why he keeps looking at you.

“I just want you to realize that once we walk through those doors, we’re going to war. No more playtime or throwing around threats. We’re attacking the Baem today.”

You swallow nervously and let his words sink into you. This was going to be your first time seeing EXO in action… and this might be the last time you ever see some of these men who have become your family again… You shake those thoughts from your head. This is what you wanted. You wanted the Baem to pay for everything they’ve done and now was your chance to make sure they finally do.

You look up in time to see Minseok whip into the driveway and hear Sehun’s muttered “finally” from the back. There was no time to be scared or nervous, so when Minseok throws open his door, you’re quick to follow.

Sehun, on the other hand, was not. You notice him slowly getting out of the SUV while taking in the giant brick structure in front of him. He slowly closes the door behind him, and you find yourself wondering what was going through his head for the third time today. This was his first time home in months, and the first time he’ll be seeing all of EXO with his memories intact.

You follow Minseok up to the front door and glance back to see Sehun slowly trailing behind you. The second Minseok opens the door, you can hear a cacophony of voices coming from the other side of it like they were all standing right at the door waiting. Which, you find out, is exactly the case.

You jump a little when you see the group of men focus on you and Minseok as you walk into the house. Your eyes immediately find Baekhyun, and he gives you a relieved smile once he sees you. His eyes quickly scanning you from head-to-toe to make sure you’re okay, which is a habit you noticed he picked up months ago, any time you walked out the front door without him. A moment later, his eyes fall onto something behind you, and that’s when you know he’s spotted Sehun.

“No way…” Jongin breathily lets out from beside Baekhyun.

Sehun slowly steps into the house behind you and takes in all the shocked faces staring at him. The shock mostly being felt by Baekhyun, Yixing, and Jongin, who were seeing him for the first time since the warehouse.

Sehun’s eyes dart around before they find the exact person he was looking for. He stares at Chanyeol, who carefully watches him through sad eyes before he takes a step toward him. Chanyeol startles at the action, and his eyes widen in confusion.

Sehun quickly closes the gap between them and pulls the slightly taller man into a tight hug. Chanyeol remains frozen as Sehun quickly begins mumbling apologies.

“I’m sorry for being gone so long… and I’m sorry for not remembering you…”

Minseok quietly informs the room that Sehun has his memories back as the rest of the men watch in confusion. Once Chanyeol hears this, his arms fly up around Sehun and pull him impossibly closer, the latter letting out a small “umph”.

“He remembers us?!” Jongin asks excitedly before a sour expression takes over his face. “Good, because he pulled some shit at the warehouse that I never got to bitch at him for.”

Jongdae tells him to shut up as they all patiently wait for the cousins to properly reunite. Your eyes trail over to Yixing, and you can see him slightly biting his lip while he stares at Sehun. You knew he was itching to check Sehun out, now that his memories were back, but he knew now wasn’t the right time.

“As much as I’d love to celebrate Sehun coming back to us…We need to act now before the Baem does.”

Junmyeon’s words sobered up the room as they all remembered what needed to be done. Ripples of words echoed through the men as they talked amongst themselves about what they were going to do. The word “bombs” being thrown around enough times to catch both your and Sehun’s attention. Just what the hell was their plan?

“I’m sorry about the irony of this,” Junmyeon vaguely begins saying, pulling the attention of Sehun. “How this is almost exactly like the last time you were with us. Rushing out the door after the Baem, and blowing up buildings… It’s almost like you didn’t miss anything at all…”

“Except we’re missing one important person…” Sehun quietly says before looking over toward Jongdae, “and have apparently gained some more.”

You follow his line of sight and notice three guys behind Jongdae that you had never seen a day in your life. How the hell did you miss three random faces when you came in here? It was like everything you had apparently learned in your training had gone out the window. Then Sehun’s words penetrate through your brain, and you realize he had brought up Kyungsoo.

“How did you end up finding out?” Chanyeol quietly asks him.

Sehun looks down at his feet like he’s trying to find the right words to say. He inhales deeply before looking up at the rest of you.

“The first ‘mission’ the Baem sent me on was to come here and report back to them everyone who showed up to a memorial that was being held in the backyard… I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was Kyungsoo’s…”

Your breath catches in your throat at his admission. He was sent to spy on his own friend’s funeral, and he didn’t even know it. The thought made you absolutely sick to your stomach, and you knew the feeling was mutual among the rest of the men. Their face’s portraying their anger and pain at the thoughts of Sehun being put in that situation.

“When my memories came back, and I had time to reflect on everything… I was able to connect some dots… and it really fucking sucked when I realized what had happened,” he recalls through gritted teeth, trying to hide his sadness.

“The fact that he’s…” Sehun shakes his head and takes a breath, “I haven’t truly been able to process it yet… I am happy, in some twisted sort of way, that I was able to be at the memorial, though… Even if I didn’t realize it was for Kyungsoo, I felt… connected to him. I remember thinking how crazy it was that both of us were in the same explosion, but only one of us made it… I just didn’t realize how connected we were.”

The back of your throat burns, and you blink a few times to try to relieve the stinging you were feeling in your eyes, but it doesn’t help much. While Sehun was talking, the thought that Sehun didn’t know what happened to Kyungsoo occurred to you. That it was Sehun’s own weapon that ended up taking Kyungsoo out. You find Chanyeol’s eyes as you remember him telling you Sehun would blame himself if he ever found out how Kyungsoo had died. You were starting to get dangerously close to that happening.

Sehun couldn’t find out what happened that night. At least, not yet. Not when you still had something to do, so you try to get Sehun to focus on something else.

“Sehun… did you stick around after the memorial ended? Were you…”

“Watching you?” He asks, and you nod. “Yeah, that was me. I was about to leave when you came back outside. I stayed because they wanted me to gather any information I could… on all of you.”

“You were the shadow man on the cameras this whole time?” Jongin asks in surprise. “Well, I guess that’s one less thing we have to worry about.”

It was a relief to know it had been Sehun watching you, and not some creep or enemy. Now you could put that silent question that had always been in the back of your head to rest, and get some answers to some other questions you had.

You point to the men behind Jongdae and immediately ask, “Who are they?”

Jongdae glances over his shoulder at the men behind him, and that’s when you take a good look at their appearances. All three of them looked to be in their mid to late 20’s, just like most of you were, but they all held a slightly more innocent look than you were used to. Not to say they were innocent because they definitely gave off some “bad boy” vibes, but besides the lip and nose piercings two of them had, they looked very plain. Black hair and black clothes like they wanted to hide from the world and not be seen.

Jongdae surprises you when he answers your abrupt question. “These are members of Kyungsoo and I’s old gang… I knew we were going to need some help, and they were more than willing to offer themselves… They want revenge for Kyungsoo, just like the rest of us.”

One of the men nods at Jongdae’s words as another one looks at you. You meet his gaze and see curiosity in his eyes. That’s when you figure that they must know Kyungsoo died while saving you. It didn’t seem like he blamed you for it, but he was definitely intrigued by you.

“We’ll accept any help that you can offer. How many of there are you?” Your brother asks.

“15. All more than willing to do what’s necessary.”

His words make you wonder if this is the first time they’ve gone head to head with a mafia group. If you remembered correctly, they were a part of a small gang that pushed drugs into schools and universities. They weren’t dealing with selling weapons, extortion, and the more vile things these groups did.

They were willing to take that final step for Kyungsoo, but would they actually be able to do it?

“Perfect. That’ll be a lot of help.” Junmyeon says, snapping you to attention.

“Alright, here’s the deal. We’re dividing each district between two of you and each of your units. How you want to handle each district will be for you guys to figure out when you get there, but we’ll have roughly a 20 minute time frame to get everything done from start to finish. Jongdae, since you have your old gang with you, you’ll be getting two districts to cover. There’s enough of you that you’ll be able to handle it.”

Jongdae nods. “That’s fine. Which areas?”

“Districts 5 and 7. Baekhyun and Jongin, you have District 3, which is the closest to downtown, so you’ll need to be a little more careful. Chanyeol and Sehun, will the two of you be okay to work together?”

“Absolutely.” Chanyeol immediately says without hesitation.

“Okay, then you’ll have District 6 along the river. Minseok and I will take District 2 on the east side.”

You had been watching your brother hand out orders and assignments in a very militaristic fashion without an issue… but to hear that he was going out on this mission was a surprise to you. You thought it was important for the leader to remain safe in case everything went wrong… Why would he so willingly jump into the chaos?

“You’re going out there?” Sehun asks in surprise. Apparently, he was on the same wavelength as you.

“I’m not sitting this one out.” Your brother adamantly says with a shake of his head before smirking and looking over at Minseok. “It’ll be just like old times.”

“Where do you want us?” Yixing asks.

Your eyebrows raise at his question. There was only one other person in the room without an assignment, and it was you. Were you the other part of the “us” and if you were, why are you just now finding out about it?

“Yixing and Y/N will be in the middle of all the districts in District 4. Along with Yixing’s medical unit, they’ll be tending to the wounded, as well as alerting all teams of any incoming back up. They’ll have a good vantage point of each area.”

You swore your body was as stiff as a board while your brother spoke. You didn’t know the first thing about first aid, let alone know how to do triage or whatever the hell else they did in warzones because that was exactly what this was about to be.

There were going to be innocent bystanders walking around out there, and police will probably come in and attempt to stop whatever was happening. Not to mention the EXO and Baem members that will be trying to kill each other in the middle of it all. Also, lets not forget that you didn’t even know what the fuck their plan was. You were going in completely blind, and you knew that was your brother’s intention.

You wanted to be involved, so he put you out there in the thick of it, but he made sure to truly keep you out of the way. You could help them, but apparently only so much. You weren’t even sure if you should be angry, offended, or scared that you now possibly held their lives in your hands, and you didn’t know how to do anything about it.

“Y/N, Yixing will fill you in on everything on the way there. Chanyeol, you’ll have to fill Sehun in too. The rest of us know what we need to do.” Junmyeon tells the room while looking at each person in the eye.

“What even is your plan?” You finally find your voice, and boy, does it sound pissed off. “What the hell are you even doing?”

“We’re blowing up half the city tonight, baby girl,” Jongin says with a smirk.

Baekhyun snaps his head toward the younger man when he hears the nickname that had fallen from his lips before promptly slapping him in the back of the head. “Don’t call her that.”

Junmyeon rolls his eyes at the two before turning to look at you. He could tell you were pissed off about being so in the dark and that you probably thought whatever their plan was, was stupid, so he tries to placate you. “Yixing will fill you in on the way.”

You feel yourself grinding your teeth at your brother’s response. You glare at him also, so he can truly get it through his thick skull how fucked up this was, but then you slowly nod, because what else are you supposed to do? Throw a fit? Claim you’re not going because you didn’t get your way? No. You were going to suck it up and deal with your anger later.

“We’re doing this to show the rest of the mafia world not to fuck with us. To prove we will not be walked over, and that anything that is done to us will be returned tenfold… but we’re also doing this for those the Baem have taken from us,” your brother states in a strong voice. “We let them get away with too much, and that ends today.”

Jongdae matches Junmyeon’s stare with a steely expression. “For Kyungsoo.”

“Jisoo and Minhyuk,” Baekhyun adds with determination.

“Jiho…” Chanyeol says before slowly looking at his cousin. “And Sehun.”

You meet your brother’s stare and remember the night that started you both down the paths you were now leading. “Our parents.”

Junmyeon nods and then turns to look at the rest of the men. “Tonight, this ends. We will not let a single Baem member escape. We’re going to eradicate that group off the face of this planet, and by the end of the day, they will all be dead.”

It would be hard for anyone to follow up the words that just poured from your brother with anger and determination, so no one bothered to try. Wordlessly, everyone started packing up their gear and whatever else they needed and headed out to their vehicles.

Since you were never told about anything that was going to happen, you awkwardly stand in the entryway, feeling like you’re just in the way of everyone else rushing around. Yixing and a man you’ve only seen a handful of times before were carrying medical supplies out to one of the black SUVs while you debated asking him if he needed help.

Before you could decide, a hand slides into your own, and you’re quickly pulled down the hallway and away from the men getting ready to risk their lives. Your eyes follow the line of the arm and eventually see the back of Baekhyun’s head as he pulls you along with him.

“Baek, where are we going?”

He glances back at you with a small, borderline sad, smile. “I just need a minute…”

You allow him to pull you into the kitchen and watch as he quickly scans to make sure the two of you were alone. Once he’s satisfied, he turns to you with a serious gaze that only slightly shocks you.

“Baek…” you quietly say, squeezing the hand he was still holding on to.

“I need a moment to be alone with you before… everything goes down.” He reaches for your other hand and holds them both gently. “I don’t know if - ”

“Stop.” You quickly tell him, not wanting to hear the words you know are going to come out of his mouth.

“No. We need to face reality… There’s a chance… that I might not make it back from this… Hell, there’s a chance you might not either. We have no idea what’s going to happen today… That’s why I had to be alone with you one last time… I needed to do this.”

With those words, he pulls you toward him by your hands before letting them go and placing his gently on both of your cheeks. He lightly swipes his thumbs over your cheeks like he is handling the most fragile jewel in the world. His eyes search your own, and you can’t tell if he’s trying to find comfort or take a mental image of this moment so he’ll never forget it.

He slowly leans forward, and your eyes reflexively close once you feel the slight brush of his lips on yours. He adds a little pressure to the kiss, but it still remains soft and gentle. It was a reassuring, you’re-my-entire-world kiss that you will carry with you forever, but if this was the last time you would see him, you needed something more.

You wrap your hands around the back of his neck and pull him closer to you, your lips immediately pushing harder on to his. He quickly follows suit and deepens the kiss, his hands reaching down to your waist and tugging you impossibly closer.

You kiss him like this was the last time you’ll ever see him. You put every amount of emotion you can into it: fear, love, desperation, hope… and you can tell in the tight way he holds you that he’s doing the same. His fingers grip into your sides like he’s afraid to let you go, to let this moment end, and if you’re honest with yourself… you’re afraid too.

Unfortunately, there was no more time for stalling, and as much as you wanted to ignore Jongin’s shouts for Baekhyun, you knew you couldn’t. You break the kiss but make no move to pull away. Baekhyun lets out a sigh as he rests his forehead against yours.

He reaches back up to cup your cheek and lets out a quiet, “I love you”.  
A small smile grows on your face as you fight the tears that are attempting to escape from your eyes. “I love you too.”

Baekhyun notices your watery eyes immediately and shakes his head slightly, whispering, “Please, don’t cry. I’ll never be able to walk away from you if you do…”

“I’m sorry…” you match his tone, “I’m just scared of what’ll happen.”

“I know, baby. I know.” He pulls away and lightly kisses your forehead. “I’m going to fight like hell to come back to you, and you better do the same if you need to.”

You nod against him as he pulls you into a tight hug. You couldn’t speak at the moment because you knew if any words came out tears would be soon to follow, so you wrap your arms around his waist and hold him instead. You wish the moment could last forever, but it’s abruptly interrupted when Jongin comes through the kitchen door looking for Baekhyun.

You catch him awkwardly trying to pretend he didn’t interrupt anything as you pull away from the warmth and comfort that is Baekhyun.

“Sorry to interrupt, but… it’s time to go.”

A slight stab of fear pierces your heart because everything was happening so freaking fast. You felt like you had zero time to prepare yourself mentally or emotionally for whatever was about to happen, and it was all coming to a head quicker than you liked.

Baekhyun’s hand stays on the small of your back as the two of you follow Jongin back down the hallway. The only people left in the compound were your brother, Minseok, Yixing, and the man you just remembered was named Junyoung. As you approach the group, who were clearly waiting for you, your brother gives you a small smile. Once you’re in reach, his hand comes up to rest on the back of your head, lightly patting your hair.

“You ready?” You nod at his question, and your brother pulls you into a tight hug of his own. “After today, we won’t have to worry about the Baem anymore. We’re going to get the revenge we should’ve gotten years ago.”

After he pulls away, time slips from you. You’re ushered out into an SUV and driving towards the city before you even realize Yixing is the one driving you. You turn to the back seat and see Junyoung staring out the window behind you.

“Ah, she’s back.” Yixing tries to joke, but you’re not in the mood.

“Yixing… what’s going to happen tonight?”

You knew Jongin said they were blowing up half of the city, but that couldn’t be true, right? There was no way for something like that to go unnoticed. How would you even begin to explain it?

“Jongin was exaggerating, right?”

A grimace passes on Yixing’s face, and you know right away, Jongin had not been exaggerating.

“What the hell?! How are any of you going to get away with this?”

Yixing shrugs like what they were going to do wasn’t even a big deal. “That’s just how it works. The city officials will take care of the explanation. Gas leaks, terrorism, maybe even gang violence, but either way, they benefit from this.”

“How do they benefit from their city being blown up?” You ask in disbelief.

“If everything goes right, an entire mafia family is going to be wiped away. That’s less crime, fewer drugs, and less mafia leader’s to deal with. Any debts or blackmail the Baem have on them will be gone, and that’s all they care about.”

“But you guys will still have that information… which is exactly why they’ll cover for you.”

He smirks as you piece together the inner workings of corruption. “You’re just like your brother, mafia princess.”

You make a face at the name and feel the slightest bit of your mood change. “Don’t ever call me that again.”

Sehun’s POV

He anxiously taps his fingers against his leg as he sits in the passenger seat of Chanyeol’s car. So many things were running through his mind that he almost couldn’t even pick one to focus on.

As they followed one of the men’s vehicles ahead, Jongdae he thinks, he finally focuses in on one thing. How weird it was to be with Chanyeol again. Well, EXO in general, but especially in the car with Chanyeol now. It had been months since he’s seen his home or been within such close proximity to his cousin, and you’d think he’d be ecstatic, but he was more conflicted than he expected.

He couldn’t be happier to be back with his family and to feel safe but the familiarity he once felt was further away than he expected. He knew he had changed. Anyone who went through what he had was bound to come back different. He just didn’t expect to feel so removed from himself. Maybe it was because he had no chance to acclimate back into his old life. He was immediately thrown back into the chaos that was eerily similar to the last time he went out on an EXO mission.

That was another thing that bothered him. Once Chanyeol explained what they were doing, Sehun felt a tightening in his chest. A fear he didn’t even realize he had was growing inside of him. He was terrified of history repeating itself, of one of them being lost to EXO or another being lost to himself. He wasn’t mentally prepared for it.

The next thing that was bugging him was where Jaesuk was. Had he been able to get away? Did the leaders find him? Was he already gone from this world? Sehun had to find out what happened to him before this was all over.

Chanyeol turns off the headlights as they approach the corner of the street they needed, snapping Sehun from his thoughts. The sun was still setting, painting the sky with purples and golds, and providing enough light for them to see.

Sehun took note of the fact that they weren’t in an extravagant area of town. In fact, the houses were majorly run down or already abandoned by whoever owned them previously. It would be easy to blow up this area without a thought or worry about people being around and catching them.

A black SUV was waiting up ahead, and Sehun knew it was men from his and Chanyeol’s units. A spark of relief fills him at the thought of seeing his men. The ones who somehow managed to grow on him, even though Sehun often tried to keep his distance from them.

“The warehouse is about a quarter of a mile to the East, but this will be our rendezvous point,” Chanyeol informs him, nodding his head to where the men are.

They pull to a stop behind the SUV, and Chanyeol turns off the ignition. Before he opens his door, he turns to Sehun. “I know you just came back, but there’s no one else I’d rather have by my side right now.”

Sehun nods, not knowing what to say to the soft words that flowed from Chanyeol’s mouth, but he doesn’t even get the chance to speak. His cousin throws open the door and climbs out of his car, leaving Sehun sitting there. He watches Chanyeol walk over to the men and decides it’s now or never.

Pushing the car door open, he slowly climbs out of the vehicle and starts to head over to the men Chanyeol had greeted. Almost one-by-one, all eight of them turn to face him with equal amounts of shock and confusion. Their gazes switch back and forth between Sehun and Chanyeol, trying to figure out what’s going on. Clearly, none of them had expected Sehun to show up today, especially on this mission.

Sehun feels a wave of awkwardness ripple through the men as he comes to a stop in between two of them. A moment later, he’s being grabbed by multiple arms and being pulled into a hug with his men. Sehun tries to hide the small smile creeping on his face at their low greetings. He doesn’t want them to think he has gone soft, but the smile is there anyway.

“Alright, we’ll celebrate later,” Chanyeol says, breaking up the moment. “You guys know what to do. Set up devices every 10 yards around the warehouse’s perimeter, and if you get caught by anyone, shoot them. Make sure your silencers are on to minimize the sound, and whatever you do, do not let them capture you. There will not be a rescue mission here. If you’re not at the rally point in 15 minutes, that’s it. This building is going to be blown sky-high. Don’t be in it.”

Sehun notices the four men from Chanyeol’s unit slowly nod, but the four from Sehun’s unit look hesitant. Actually, they all looked hesitant to follow Chanyeol’s orders but, in the end, his men were going to no matter what. Sehun’s men, however, look to Sehun for leadership, and Sehun looks back and forth between them and Chanyeol.

“Do exactly as he said. He knows more about this than I do.” Sehun finally tells them once he realizes they’re waiting for his orders.

Whatever awkwardness was happening here would have to wait until later. Hopefully, he’d have a chance to talk with them and figure out what the heck was going on and why they weren’t immediately listening to Chanyeol.

10 minutes later, all of Sehun’s and his unit’s bombs were in place and ready to be detonated. There was one close call where he thought they were going to get caught, but they were able to hide quick enough and finish the task. Sehun was surprised to see the warehouse so empty and seemingly unguarded. It was enough to put him on edge, considering he knew from his time with the Baem that this was usually a well-secured building.

The little alarm bells in his head started ringing once they got to the rally point, and he noticed Chanyeol and his men weren’t anywhere in sight. Sehun tried to calm himself because he knew they had another five minutes to get here but, with each minute that passed, Sehun grew increasingly worried.

Once the 15 minutes were up, and Chanyeol was still a no-show, Sehun immediately started making his way back toward the building. He makes it a few feet before one of his men grips his arm tightly.

“He said this wasn’t a rescue mission.”

“If you think I’m not going in there after my cousin, you’re very much mistaken.”

The man moves in front of him in an attempt to physically stop him, and Sehun has to stop himself from laughing. “It’s been 15 minutes. We have to be in sync with the other groups, or backup will show up here to protect the warehouse.”

“First of all,” Sehun says, while removing the man’s grip from his arm, “don’t grab me like that again. Secondly, I don’t give a fuck what Chanyeol said. I’m not leaving anyone behind, and I’m certainly not leaving five of them. I wouldn’t leave any of you behind, so I’m not leaving my own family behind either. Give me five minutes, and if I’m not back, blow it up.”

“We’re not blowing up the building with you in it.” Another one of his men says while stepping closer to them.

“But you’ll do it with five other men in there?” Sehun asks with disappointment.

“I don’t know what the hell happened while I was gone, but this is not how we do things, and we’re not going to start now.”

The man next to him bites his lip while looking over at the one who had the guts to stop Sehun before deciding for himself. “You’re right. We don’t leave anyone behind. We’ll give you five minutes, but then we’re coming in after you.”

Sehun gives a curt nod, already planning the discussion he was going to have with his unit for the little stunt that was just pulled before running for the warehouse. He couldn’t believe they were willing to leave the other men behind, and he didn’t care if that’s what Chanyeol told them to do. That wasn’t how Sehun led them, and he was damn sure going to remind them of that.

Another small thought niggled at the back of his mind. Had they done that to him? Did they even bother to search for Sehun when we went missing, or did they just write him off like they were willing to do to Chanyeol?

Sehun pushes the thought aside as he enters the giant warehouse. He wildly looks around for a sign of anyone, but there’s nothing. The building is almost eerily quiet, and Sehun knew this would end badly. He knew the warehouse, which held all different types of guns, usually had a minimum of 20 people loitering around. The fact that there was no one… it wasn’t right.

Movement toward the back of the building caught his attention, and he took off toward it at full speed. He made it to the back of the building in less than 30 seconds, but when he rounded the same corner he saw the man go around, there was nothing, literally nothing, not even a door.

Sehun turns around, thinking there was a small chance he missed something, and meets the end of a Glock. He looks past the barrel of the gun pointed directly in his face to meet the eyes of a Baem member he didn’t recognize. Mentally, he let out a multitude of curse words, but physically, he kept his face completely blank.

“I don’t know if I should say 'welcome home’ or if I should shoot you for trespassing.” The man smugly says.

Much to his disappointment, Sehun gives him nothing. No words or facial movements, just a blank stare while he waits to see what the man’s next move will be. Once the man realizes this, he roughly grabs Sehun by his jacket and pushes him in front of him, down toward a short hallway. Sehun only makes it to the second door on the left before he’s shoved into the room by the man behind him.

This was it. They were finally going to kill him. He couldn’t decide if it was almost more cruel that he was given the chance to see the people he loved one last time or not. Would it be easier for them to let him go now that they got to see him and reunite, or would it hurt more?

However, Sehun was in for the shock of his life when he scans the room and sees his two closest allies kneeling on the ground while being tied up with guns pointed toward their heads.

His head shoots up, and he counts six other Baem members in the room, including the one who brought him here at gunpoint before his eyes fall back down to Chanyeol and Jaesuk.

If the other two men were free, there was a chance that the three of them could easily take on the other six men, but just Sehun himself? No way. There was also no way he’d get the chance to free his two friends from the chains that were attached to their hands and feet.

There was only one thing Sehun could do, and that was stall the Baem long enough for his unit to get to them.

He looks between Chanyeol and Jaesuk. One knowing exactly who the other was, while the other didn’t have a clue. Chanyeol didn’t know who Jaesuk was. He didn’t know he was the one who protected him and guided him while his memory was gone, or that Jae was part of the reason this entire operation was possible. All he knew was there was some man tied up next to him, but Jae knew exactly who Chanyeol was. He knew how important his cousin was to him.

Jaesuk had clearly been beaten during or after his capture and Sehun was surprised and suspicious, yet very happy the man was still alive. Although… Sehun had to wonder why the Baem kept him alive or what their plan was.

The two men, though tied up, looked very pissed off that Sehun was in front of them, and not far away like he should’ve been. Sehun ignores them and looks around the room for whoever was in charge. That’s when his eyes land on Minho. The man who had lied to him from the first moment he met him.

“Oh Sehun… I’m sad to see us in this situation.”

“I’m sure you are,” Sehun replies drily, causing a smirk to grow on Minho’s face.

Sehun cautiously watches while Minho walks behind Chanyeol and Jaesuk’s tied up bodies and spews more bullshit. “So, when did you get your memories back?”

“Does it really matter? It turns out I was able to help EXO even when I didn’t have my memory.”

Sehun really would give almost anything to wipe that smirk off of Minho’s face, but his words just cause Minho to step towards Jaesuk and kick him swiftly in the ribs. Jae grunts in pain but remains in his kneeling position.

“Right. I’m sure this one provided enough of that information to you also.”

“Jaesuk had nothing to do with it.” Sehun defensively says, knowing it was futile but still trying to cover for him.

Chanyeol looks between Sehun and the man next to him in realization. It was clear once Sehun said his name, Chanyeol figured out that this was the Baem member Sehun had been working with.

When Minho didn’t bother to respond to Sehun, he got a little worried. He knew he had to keep the Baem members talking if he wanted to give his unit enough time to get in here and offer some help.

“What do you even want, Minho?”

Minho glances over at Sehun in surprise. “What do I want? Well, I want your cousin here to die because he’s my enemy, I want to torture Jaesuk for his betrayal, and I want to make you sit there and watch it all. However, I don’t have the time for that, considering EXO is making a move on us as we speak, so I’m going to force you to choose instead.”

An uneasy feeling creeps up Sehun’s spine as he considers Minho’s words. “Choose what?”

A cruel smirk grows on Minho’s face as he walks back and forth behind Chanyeol and Jaesuk. “Which one of these two walks out of here alive. Your cousin or your ally?”

“And why would I do that?” Sehun tries to ask in a calm voice.

There was no fucking way he was going to choose who was going to live or die between Chanyeol and Jaesuk. He would never be able to go on with his life, supposing he was able to make it out of this room alive, knowing he saved one and not the other.

Minho shrugs like the answer was obvious. “Because if you don’t, I’ll kill them both.”

“Why do you think I’m stupid enough to not know you’re just going to kill them both anyway before coming after me?”

“See… if you choose, I’ll let the other one go. Now, if he gets away fast enough will be up to him,” he says with a smile. “I really only want you and Jaesuk, and I’m guessing you’ll choose to free your cousin. This way, it’s much more fun for me to watch Jaesuk realize you don’t give a shit about him, and he betrayed us for nothing. On the other hand, the small chance you choose Jaesuk over Chanyeol is too delicious to pass up.”

“I’m not choosing.” Sehun refuses, avoiding the eyes of the two men kneeling on the floor. A minimum of three minutes had to have passed by now. He only had to stall for a tiny bit longer.

Minho lazily points a finger toward him. “See, if you don’t choose, I’m killing all three of you right here, right now. Come on, Sehun! At least give one of them hope that they’ll survive!”

To make his point clear, two Baem members step up on each side of Chanyeol and Jaesuk and point the barrels of their guns at their heads. Sehun heard movement from behind him and knew another member was pointing one at his as well.

He finally makes eye contact with his two allies again and finds rage simmering in their eyes, but… there’s also a deadly calmness in them like both men were prepared for whatever Sehun decided to do. It was almost unnerving.

“Come on, Sehun… Don’t make me actually start to countdown.” Minho taunts.

Sehun looks at him with an expression of pure hatred. If he makes it out of this alive, he’s going to redefine what the word “torture” means, and he’s going to enjoy every second of it.

Minho lets out a sigh. “Fine. We can do it this way too.”

“3…”

“2…”

“1…”


	15. Part 15

Sehun’s POV

“Wait!” Sehun shouts in panic.

Minho looks over at Sehun with raised brows. A smirk begins growing on his face now that he’s finally gotten some emotion out of Sehun.

Sehun knew his face was giving away all of his thoughts and feelings at the moment, but he couldn’t continue to act like nothing was bothering him. He knew Minho wouldn’t hesitate to shoot both Chanyeol and Jaesuk right there. Minho meant it when he said he would kill them both if he didn’t choose.

Sehun felt bile rising up his throat because he knew what he had to do. He had to choose Chanyeol. That was his cousin, who had been through almost everything with him. He was an EXO member and his brother for all intents-and-purposes. Chanyeol was damn near his other half.

However, Jaesuk had truly become his friend, and he certainly didn’t want the man to lose his life because of it. Sehun didn’t even know if he would still be here without all of the help Jaesuk gave him while he was with the Baem.

“Mmm. No. No more waiting. I gave you time to choose, and you refused, so now they’ll both die.”

Sehun was borderline distraught as he looked between his two allies. He could see it on their faces that neither man blamed him for the situation they were put in, and it almost brought Sehun to his knees. He opened his mouth to speak, to say anything that would stop Minho, but no words would come out.

Minho sighs and waves a hand at the Baem members to carry on, but a voice startles all of them.

“Choose Chanyeol.”

Sehun’s eyes snap up at Jaesuk’s quiet words in shock, while Chanyeol nearly snaps his neck to look over at the man next to him. He knew Chanyeol was even more shocked than Sehun, and he looked at the stranger in confusion. It was obvious Chanyeol couldn’t figure out why a Baem member would sacrifice himself to save him, but Sehun couldn’t worry about that right now.

He meets Jaesuk’s stare and can see the acceptance behind the man’s dark eyes. It was clear Jaesuk had already made up his mind about what would happen. He probably knew Sehun wouldn’t be able to choose one over the other, so he would choose for him. Jae had always been two steps ahead of him.

“It’s okay, Sehun…” Jaesuk softly tells him.

Tears pricked Sehun’s eyes, and he no longer cared who saw them. He didn’t care how weak it made him look to the Baem. All he cared about was Jaesuk’s soft words to him.

The five minutes had to have been up, but his men still weren’t there. He never accounted for the other possibilities of what could prevent them from coming to the rescue… Baem backup coming, them not being fast enough… them not bothering to come at all… He just assumed they’d get there in time and save the day, but those weren’t the cards he was dealt with.

All he knew was that Minho wasn’t going to wait any longer.

“I’m so sorry, Jae…” Sehun chokes out.

Jaesuk closes his eyes and slowly nods, waiting for the inevitable. Sehun looks up at Minho, and through blurry eyes, can see the sadistic smirk on his face. Deep down, they all knew this was going to be the outcome. Sehun just wanted to pretend that it wasn’t.

With a nod from Minho, the Baem member next to Jaesuk pulls the trigger, and Jaesuk’s body jerks to the side before he slumps over on the ground. Sehun watched it happen like it was in slow motion… like he was watching a video on a slowed-down playback speed that would be burned into his brain for the rest of his life.

He had seen people killed before. Hell, he’s killed multiple people himself, but it’s never been someone close to him. Someone he cared about. It was like a blow to his chest.

Sehun falls to his knees as he stares at Jaesuk’s lifeless body. His friend’s eye’s staring vacantly towards the wall. He couldn’t look over at Chanyeol, even though he could feel his cousin staring at him with shocked eyes. All he would be able to see is Jae’s blood splattered all over the side of Chanyeol.

A loud bang sounds from behind Sehun as his men finally pour into the fucking room, and Sehun feels a rage he’s never known before tear through his body. He lets out an anguished cry as his men systematically take out the Baem in the room.

Seconds. If they were just seconds faster, they would’ve been able to save Jaesuk. They were so fucking close. Why couldn’t they have gotten there faster?! Why couldn’t they have been better?!

Sehun falls forward onto his hands and tries to catch his breath. He was so fucking irate at how long it had taken them to get there, he almost wanted to kill them all too.

He was aware of his unit untying Chanyeol from his chains and aware that Minho was now lying lifeless next to Jaesuk. Their blood mingling into a pool together was enough for Sehun to lose his mind.

Jaesuk had been his stability for the past couple of months, and now he just willingly sacrificed himself for Sehun’s cousin, someone he didn’t even know, for Sehun. Jaesuk was the one guiding him through each step of his forced new life, and now he was gone, and Sehun didn’t know what to do.

He feels Chanyeol crawl over to him and pull him into a tight hug while he breaks down. Somewhere deep down, he knew Chanyeol was trying to figure out what the hell to do to help Sehun while he was in this frenzied state, but there was absolutely nothing he could do. No one could help Sehun get through this.

Y/N’s POV

You stood off to the side as Yixing and Junyoung unloaded the SUV. When you had arrived at your “designated spot”, which you found out was a giant empty parking lot, you were surprised to see a mobile blood donation van in the middle of it.

Yixing laughed at your confusion at first, then he informed you that it was the other two members of his unit. The donation van would be their cover story, in case anyone got suspicious. However, you thought it was more suspicious that a random ass donation van was in an empty parking lot all by itself, but who were you to stop them.

“Why are we stationed here again?”

“Because we can see in all four directions the other groups went in,” Yixing tells you while laying out all the first aid supplies he thought would be useful. “Plus, two of my men can go up to the roof of the building across the street, and give us intel on what’s going through these.”

He hands you a two-way radio to hold as you glance over at the nine-story building next to you. When you look back at him, you see him laying out even more supplies, and you watch him anxiously.

“Are we expecting a lot of injuries?”

“You remember what happened last time we went against the Baem?”

You think back to losing Kyungsoo and Sehun going missing. How on Earth could you forget?

“Maybe you guys should stop blowing things up.”

Yixing lets out a laugh as he lays the rest of the supplies out in an order he was happy with. “I don’t see that happening anytime soon, especially now that Sehun’s back.”

You silently stand next to Junyoung while Yixing discusses things with his two other members before sending them across the street. Junyoung leaned down to go through a black duffle bag he dropped next to the van, and when he straightens back up, he turns to you. You look down at his hands and see a polished 9mm being handed to you.

You look up in surprise and glance over at Yixing, who nods his head for you to take it. Slowly, you reach over and take the weapon from Junyoung’s hands. It had a nice weight to it and fit comfortably in your hand.

“I heard you already know how to use one of these, but please still be careful. I would really like to get today out of the way without being shot.”

You raise a brow at him while you check to make sure the safety is on before tucking it into the back of your pants. An attitude like that made you want to make your finger “accidentally” slip on the trigger. Apparently, Yixing knew what you were thinking as well.

“I’d be careful if I were you, Junyoung. She won’t hesitate to shoot you.”

Before Junyoung can respond, an explosion booms from the East, causing you to jump right out of your skin. Well… there was no turning back now…

“That was a little… earlier than expected.” Yixing slowly says.

Junyoung glances in the direction the sound came from, and you follow his gaze to see black smoke slowly rising into the sky. “Almost five minutes early. Who’s over there?”

“Junmyeon and Minseok.” Yixing answers him while glancing over at you.

Of course, hearing your brother’s name worried you, but if you were going to be worried by one explosion, you were in for a long night.

“They know what they’re doing.” You say to reassure yourself, and Yixing nods in agreement.

You try to keep your thoughts positive, as positive as they can be in this situation, at least until another explosion rocks off from the North. Your heart stutters in your chest, and you know it’s going to do that every time you hear an explosion.

“Jongdae.” Yixing quietly recounts.

“What’s the plan for after the explosions?” You ask as an afterthought.

“They’re going to comb through the rubble, search for survivors, and get rid of them.”

A woman’s scream echoes against the buildings as she runs up the road and away from the explosions. You begin to notice more people heading in the same direction as the woman, glancing over their shoulders every few seconds in confused fear.

“What about all of the people in the center of the districts? Aren’t we herding them right to us?” You ask as you see the flow of people grow.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t anything we can do about that. If we had given any type of warning, the Baem would’ve been warned too.” Yixing grits his teeth as an explosion booms from the South. “Baekhyun and Jongin.”

You ignore the lurch in your chest upon hearing Baekhyun’s name and try to focus on Junyoung’s words.

“They’re going to be heading straight for this medical van too, so we need to be prepared.”

As another explosion comes from the North, Jongdae again, more and more people flood into the streets in fear. Sirens can be heard echoing through the city as they race toward the sounds of the explosions.

You can feel your heart thundering in your chest as the sounds all start to blend together. Panic begins clawing inside you as your breathing becomes more ragged. You try to take a few calming breaths, but you know it’s not working until a hand rests on your shoulder.

You focus your eyes on Yixing, who was now standing in front of you, telling you to take a deep breath. Once you inhale, you can smell smoke and whatever else was burning in the air. Glancing up, you see the sky begin to darken as the smoke clouds begin taking larger shapes.

“Hey,” Yixing says to grab your attention. “Things are only going to get worse from here, so I need you here and focused, okay?”

You nod as you focus in on Yixing’s soft eyes. “I’m good. I’m okay.”

He looks at you doubtfully, but you were telling the truth. You were going to be okay because you had to be. There was no other option at this point.

“Yixing, Chanyeol and Sehun haven’t detonated theirs yet. They’re almost 10 minutes late.”

Panic starts clawing at you again once you hear Junyoung’s words, but you push it down and ignore it. They were going to be okay, just like your brother and Baekhyun and everyone else.

You glance over at Yixing and Junyoung, who were discussing backup plans in case Chanyeol and Sehun can’t get their district taken care of, and see a woman rushing toward your van.

“Guys.” You nod your head toward her once they look at you.

Yixing hurries over to intercept her, and you can see him gently trying to calm her down. You can hear him telling her that you were only doing blood donations and quickly checking her over to make sure she was physically okay and just in a state of shock.

The radio you forgot you even had in your possession suddenly crackles to life, causing you to jump a little. Junyoung also hears it and hurries over to you to hear what the members on the roof have to say.

“Two figures approaching from the South. They look to be Friendly.”

Radioing back that you copy, you meet Junyoung’s stare and turn toward the back of the lot. You try to keep yourself calm, knowing that friendly meant it was two EXO members coming, but you also knew Baekhyun and Jongin had the southern district. The only reason they would be heading your way was if they were injured, but you try to stop yourself from jumping to conclusions.

Yixing comes up behind you after dealing with the woman, and you hear Junyoung filling him in on what’s happening, but you don’t turn away from the entrance. You continue to stare almost as if, if you will it hard enough, they would suddenly appear.

Finally, after another minute of anxious waiting, two figures round the corner. One figure was leaning heavily on the other and limping on a clearly injured leg, but the other appeared to be fine.

Yixing starts toward them to offer his assistance, and you move over to look around him. That’s when you’re finally able to see that it was Jongin limping badly. You hold your breath as you focus in on the other man, and once you realize it’s not Baekhyun, you don’t know if you should be relieved or even more worried.

Jongin was injured, and he was being helped by one of his own men and not Baekhyun. What did that mean?

While you watch Yixing help Jongin towards the van, Junyoung taps your shoulder, and you look over at him to see him nodding towards the other entrance. You turn to see another one of the unit men jogging into the lot cradling a bloody arm. You hadn’t even realized the two men on the roof radioed in someone coming from the North because you were too worried about Baekhyun.

“I got him. You can help with Jongin.”

Nodding an okay, you turn back just in time to see Yixing laying Jongin on the stretcher next to the opened van doors. You quickly make your way over there and look Jongin up and down, trying to take in too much information at once.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” You search his eyes wildly, causing him to let out a pained laugh.

“Here I am. Injured right in front of you, and you don’t even care. Wow. I really feel the love around here.”

You look down at his injured leg and take in the split open wound on his shin that Yixing was attempting to get to. You can’t tell from the way Jongin’s able to joke if he wasn’t in that much pain or if he was trying to focus on literally anything else. You knew it was selfish to ask about Baekhyun when Jongin was hurt right in front of you, but you still needed to hear him say Baekhyun was okay. Jongin must notice the serious look on your face because the smile he was attempting to show you slowly drops.

“He’s fine. I promise. I was just standing too close to the building when it went down.”

Relief floods through you, and you can finally breathe again, but just when you’re about to joke back with him, he continues on in a serious tone.

“There’s one more thing I need to tell you, and it’s also the reason why Baekhyun wasn’t the one to bring me here…”

Jongin has both your and Yixing’s undivided attention now. The latter even momentarily pausing treating Jongin’s wounds until he remembered he had to quickly clean them.

“We were able to capture one of the Baem members while he was running out of the building. We saw an opportunity to interrogate him on their leader’s whereabouts… and that’s when he told us the leaders weren’t there. They knew we were coming for them, and they were able to get a head start and run. Baekhyun stayed behind to find out what the leader’s plans are… if we don’t manage to catch them first.”

A still calmness fills you unexpectedly. Past you, hell, you from five minutes ago, would’ve freaked out about this information. The two people you wanted dead the most kept managing to escape every time EXO attacked. You should’ve felt scared or worried about them getting away, but you weren’t. In fact, you’ve never felt this calm in your entire life.

“Where are they?”

Jongin looks up at Yixing, and you follow his eyes to see the older man shaking his head at Jongin. They both knew you were going to go after the leader’s yourself, and neither of them wanted that to happen, but there was no way they were going to stop you. This was all going to end today. Even if you had to be the one to finish it.

“I’m only going to ask you one more time…”

Yixing says your name warningly, but it did absolutely nothing.

“Where are they going?” You ask again, raising your voice and catching the attention of Junyoung and the other EXO member.

“I can’t let you - ”

Jongin’s words immediately die in his throat once he sees you reach behind your back and pull the gun from your waistband. You waste no time and point it directly at Jongin’s good leg, the one Yixing wasn’t working on.

Jongin quickly sits up, while Yixing backs away from his leg and out of shooting range. From the corner of your eye, you see Junyoung stand up, but Yixing waves him off.

“You’re not actually going to shoot me…” Jongin says lowly.

“Tell me where they are,” you reply while taking the safety off, “or you won’t walk for weeks.”

“Jesus christ, Y/N!” Jongin shouts in disbelief. “You might as well shoot me because if I tell you where they are, your brother will do it anyway.”

You knew you were asking for a lot and that Junmyeon would be extremely pissed with Jongin, but it was a risk you were willing to take. “Jongin, this is the last thing I want to do… but I can’t let them get away again. I won’t.”

You didn’t want to hurt Jongin, and you certainly didn’t want to threaten him like this, but you would rather die than let those two men escape again. To have to worry about where they are and when and how they will take revenge on you every single day. You knew it would make you go insane.

“We won’t let them get away again.” Yixing tries to calm you, but you ignore him.

“Jongin…” You plead, “I can do this. You trained me to defend myself for months, and plus, I’ll have the element of surprise. They won’t expect me, so they’ll get cocky.”

Jongin looks over at Yixing, who says his name in warning before finally giving in and telling you where they are.

“God damn it, Jongin,” Yixing yells at him angrily while throwing his arms in the air.

“We can send backup with her Yixing, but she’s right. If we let them get away, they’re just going to keep popping up and causing us trouble.”

You ignore Yixing’s reply as you mentally map out the location Jongin had told you. The Baem leaders weren’t far away from you at all, and you knew just how to get there. You eye the SUV you had ridden in to this very location and quickly make a beeline for the driver door.

Yixing immediately grabs your arm, stopping you before you can get very far. “No.”

“Let fucking go of me.” You grit out, somewhere in the back of your mind realizing this is the first time you’ve ever used that tone with him.

“Are you going to shoot me too?” Yixing angrily bites back at you.

You hear the disappointment laced in with his anger, and you knew that what you were doing was stupid and probably childish, but you couldn’t help yourself. They wouldn’t understand how badly you needed this to end today. How much you couldn’t keep worrying about the Baem for the rest of your life.

“If I have to!” You finally shout, ripping your arm from his grip.

“At least wait for backup.” He desperately says, switching tactics because he obviously wasn’t going to get very far with the one he was using.

“We can’t afford to wait.” You tell him as you back up toward the SUV. “I can’t afford to wait.”

Once you feel the hardness of the vehicle, you allow yourself to turn around and pull the door open. You waste no time jumping in the vehicle, slamming the door shut behind you, and locking it.

You really lucked out when Yixing left the keys sitting in the ignition in case you needed a quick escape, and you silently thank him, even though he didn’t want you doing any of this.

You quickly throw the SUV in drive and peel out of the parking lot as fast as you can, feeling determination flood you. There was no way you were going to give those two any more time to get away.

Thanks to all of the explosions rocking through the city, there wasn’t much traffic in your area since people were trying to get away and not come into the city. You only passed two vehicles as you quickly drove through the streets toward your destination.

Driving helped calm your racing nerves and allowed you to focus on only one thought. Killing the leader’s the second you saw them. There was not a single other thing you could care about in this moment. Not even if you were going to make it out alive or not.

There was no stealthy way to slow down a speeding vehicle, so once you’re close to the area, you slam on the brakes and decide to ditch the vehicle once it comes to a stop. You ignore the brake pumping under your feet and the squeal the tires make and just hope to hell they’re too busy panicking to pay attention to a noise a few buildings down.

Throwing open the driver’s door, you scramble out of the vehicle and double-check your gun to make sure the chamber is loaded. Once you’re satisfied, you carefully run towards the location, scouting out any other vehicles you pass in case they managed to take backup with them.

The last vehicle you come upon, one similar to Yixing’s, is the one you decide to hide behind. It was the closest to the building, and you’d stake your life on it being the Baem leader’s. Which means they have to come to you. There was no other way out for them.

You crouch behind the front panel and peek over the hood of the vehicle. The building they were supposedly in appeared to be an abandoned tire shop. One they undoubtedly owned. The windows were blacked out with tint, making it impossible to see anything inside, and that’s when you feel the first bit of worry enter your consciousness.

There would be no warning when they came out, so you were going to have to be prepared to make an immediate move once you see them.

Enough minutes pass that your sense of worry was able to grow, and doubt crept in along with it. What if they weren’t here? What if they were waiting for any possible backup to show? If that was the case, you were a sitting duck in the middle of the freaking street. Even worse… what if you had just made the biggest mistake of your life by coming here…

The front door to the building flies open, startling you from your thoughts. There wasn’t even a chance for you to yell at yourself for being distracted because the two men took off toward the vehicle you were hiding behind too fast. The duffle bags they carried were hitting their legs due to their fast movements, and it caused them to slow down enough for you to stand up from your crouched position and level the gun straight at them.

They both notice you immediately and halt their movements not even ten feet from you. The fear that you noticed was on their faces when they ran out turns toward anger as they see a target they can take their rage out on, but you don’t let it phase you in the slightest. You expected anger, and, if anything, you wanted to make them so mad they couldn’t see straight. That would definitely benefit you right now.

The man on the right, older than the one next to him by at least ten years, barks out a laugh as he lets the two bags he was holding drop to the ground. His eyes look you up and down, while the other leader drops his bags on the ground also.

They take in your serious face, and the gun pointed at them like it’s a joke, and that’s confirmed when the one who laughs says, “You’re not going to shoot us. You don’t have the guts or the skill to even hit one of us.”

You raise a brow at his cockiness, tired of all of these men thinking you either wouldn’t shoot them or didn’t have the skills to properly use a gun. You seriously couldn’t wait to prove him wrong, except one single thought stops you. Their kids.

You were about to take one of their parents away from them. They were going to grow up without a father. Granted, they might be better off, considering who their fathers were, but you knew that was still going to do some damage to them mentally.

However, at the moment, the bitterness in you far outweighed the sympathy for those kids. Sure, tomorrow you were going to feel horrible for this, but right now? You wanted revenge, and you know what they always say… Karma’s a bitch.

Without a second thought, you level your sight on the one that laughed at you, the one who claimed you wouldn’t do anything, and pull the trigger. He jerks back as the bullet catches him in the center of the chest, and both men look at you in disbelief. The one you shot slowly looks down at his chest and sees the growing bloodstain before dropping down to his knees.

Your only mistake was not immediately taking out the second one, as well. His recovery time was much faster than yours was, considering this was the first time you ever shot someone with the intention of killing them. Any other time was purely for defense.

As you watch the first one slowly lose the battle to stay alive, the second one sees the opportunity to take you out, and if you had seen him a couple seconds earlier, you would’ve been fine.

Almost in slow motion, you see the second man charge at you. You try to quickly take aim at him, but taking out a close-range moving target was easily ten times harder than a stationary one. You get him in your sight and squeeze the trigger, but the bullet misses him by inches as he lowers his upper body and slams harshly into you.

Once you hit the ground, your breath rushes out of you, and you don’t get the chance to get it back because the leader lands on top of you. Putting up one of your hands to block any hits he tries to throw at you, you attempt to blindly search the ground for your gun that was knocked from your grasp.

As you feel around for the piece of metal, the man brings his hands up to your throat, easily evading your weak hand that was trying to block him. You feel him tightly squeeze, and your body reflexively panics as it tries to breathe but can’t.

“Not so tough now, are you, princess?” He sneers above you, putting all his weight onto your neck.

The edges of your vision begin blacking out, and you know you’re close to losing consciousness. Just when you were about to give up your search and attempt to actually fight back and get him off your neck, you feel it. That beautiful, cold piece of destruction that was going to save you. You tightly grasp it and figure out the correct way to hold it without a glance. Once the familiar grip is securely in your hands, you raise the gun up and point it directly in his face.

Before you can pull the trigger, his hands leave your neck and quickly grab the gun. You keep your grip as tight as possible because you know if he gets the gun away from you, you’re done for, but no matter how much of a fight you put up, the man is easily three times stronger than you. Without much effort, he is able to rip the gun from your grasp and speedily turn it on you.

You freeze as he places the end of the cold barrel directly onto your forehead and looks you in the eyes with a smug smile on his face.

“You really thought you could take me.”

You smirk back at him, refusing to let him think he’s got you beat. “I got one of you, didn’t I?”

If you’re going down, there’s no way in hell you’re going down without throwing as many jabs and insults as you can, and you know your words struck a nerve with him. The smile falls from his face, and his stare hardens in anger.

“You’ve been more trouble than you’re worth.”

You helplessly watch as he squeezes the trigger. The sound of a loud bang echoes in the air, and it feels like time freezes until you hear two more shots following the first. You meet the stare of the man above you, and it takes a moment to notice that his eyes are glazing over before he slumps over on top of you.

The relief that flows through your body as the gun slides out of his grasp is enough to bring tears to your eyes. You attempt to push him off of you, but his deadweight is too much for you alone, so you lay there until whoever saved you gets over to you.

It’s only seconds before the leader’s body is ripped off of you, but it feels like an eternity. You look up and meet the most beautiful pair of eyes as they worriedly search over your body to make sure you’re okay. You hear him saying your name, but it sounds muffled, and that’s when you realize you’re in shock.

You didn’t know where he came from or how he even knew you needed him, but he was there, like always. The one who has always been there from the beginning, and the person you wanted to see the most besides your brother.

Baekhyun.

He reaches for you and pulls you up tightly against his body. You hear him mumbling “thank you” over and over again as he slightly rocks you, his lips against your head as he keeps repeating the words into your hair. You wrap your arms around his waist and hold onto him just as tight.

“I thought I was going to lose you.”

It’s those words that finally break you… You knew you were close to death, but it didn’t truly hit you until you saw the person you loved. You almost lost this. You almost lost him.

The tears fall freely from you now as Baekhyun rubs your back soothingly. He holds you while you let it all out. The fear, the realization, the relief, all of it. You cry until you feel like you’re an empty shell, and it’s only then that Baekhyun kisses the top of your head and mumbles, “let’s go home”.

——————————————

Being back in the quiet compound after all of the events that just happened felt foreign. It was too silent, too empty, and it felt like you were having an out-of-body experience.

Once you entered the compound, you found yourself stopping in the doorway, almost like your mind and body had stopped working. You stayed that way until Baekhyun put his hand on your lower back and gently guided you to the living room before pulling you down onto the couch with him.

The two of you quietly sit there and wait while you attempt to process not only what just happened but the potential outcomes of today. A large part of you felt numb, and you knew that was because you were still shocked. The rest of you felt terror. Terror at the thought that you almost lost your life.

You also could’ve lost Baekhyun today… or you could still lose your brother or any one of the other men that lived in this house… You had no idea how any of them were doing. None of them were back yet, and besides attempting to call them on the phone and hoping they had a chance to answer, neither you nor Baekhyun knew how they were doing.

Baekhyun pulls your head to his chest and wraps his arms around you tightly, pulling you from your wandering thoughts. “We should go on a trip. Just the two of us… Let’s get away from all of this for a while.”

You smile into his chest imagining all of the things the two of you could do. Explore a city, get lost in the woods, splash each other in the warm water of some foreign beach… All the things you never bothered to dream about before because they seemed so far removed from reality.

“I would love that…”

His fingers come up under your chin, and he tilts your head up so he can see your eyes. “You want to explore the world with me? Spend every night in some new place, and be totally wrapped up in nothing but each other?”

You mumble a yes as the two of you lean closer and closer together. Once you feel the light pressure of his lips, you can only describe the feeling as pure bliss. You let yourself fall into all that is Baekhyun, and finally, feel that comforting warmth that always came from him.

You let yourself enjoy the moment until you hear voices coming from the entrance hallway. The two of you pull apart and look over at the hallway just in time to see Minseok and Junmyeon walk in. Their clothes were covered in soot and torn in places, and they both had black marks all over their faces from the ash, but they looked relatively unharmed.

You jump up and immediately head toward your brother, who was already halfway to you. He quickly pulls you into a tight hug, and all you can smell is the smoke that was burnt into his clothing. You feel him look over your shoulder as he fills Baekhyun in on how they did in their district.

“We had to move earlier than we expected, but it all worked out in the end. How’d it go for you and Jongin?” He pulls away from you and looks around the room. “Where is Jongin?”

You quietly find your way back over to Baekhyn and burrow yourself into his embrace as he fills them in on Jongin getting injured and what they found out about the leaders. You immediately freeze once you hear him mention them and attempt to brace yourself for the anger you knew your brother was going to have once he found out what you did.

Your brother and Minseok instantly tense up upon hearing the leader’s escaped until Baekhyun looks at you and then back to your brother. Junmyeon’s eyes fall onto you as he tries to figure out what Baekhyun wasn’t saying. Then, it finally dawns on him that you’re not with Yixing like you should be.

“Why are you here?” He asks, pointing at you.

Without realizing it, you ball Baekhyun’s shirt into your fist and avoid your brother’s stare for a moment. You knew he wasn’t going to be happy with your actions, and you weren’t ready to deal with the consequences yet. Baekhyun gently pulls your hand from his shirt and holds it instead, lightly brushing his thumb over the top.

You take a deep breath and look over at your brother. “We don’t have to worry about the leaders anymore… because I killed them… Well, one. He killed the other.”

Junmyeon and Minseok are frozen by your words. You weren’t even sure they were still breathing, they were so still, and it lasted for almost a full minute before they both reacted.

“What do you mean you killed one?”

“Are you sure they’re both dead?”

Once Baekhyun assures Minseok that they’re both dead and no longer a threat, Minseok finally calms down. Relief washes through his features as he drops down onto the couch across from you. Your brother, on the other hand, remained in the same exact stance and held your stare. Shock, fear, and anger all fighting for dominance on his face.

“Y/N?”

You swallow before answering. “I found out they were escaping, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I threatened Jongin until he told me where they were. Then, I went there.”

“By yourself?” Your brother angrily exclaims.

“I was desperate, so yeah, I went by myself, and I killed one of them.” You defiantly say. “The other one… was able to get the upper hand, but Baekhyun showed up in time and took care of him.”

Junmyeon runs his hands down his face as he takes in everything you’re telling him. You knew you didn’t have to go into details. He knew what you were saying without you having to say it. He knew he almost lost his sister all over again, and you could see he was overwhelmed with emotions. He slowly drops down next to Minseok with his head still in his hands while he attempts to collect himself.

“How did you know to go there?” Minseok curiously asks Baekhyun.

“I was going to go after them myself once we finished up in our district, but then Jongin called me panicking and saying she went after them herself… I put my second in charge and flew over there as quickly as I could.”

Before you could let yourself dwell on the fact that Baekhyun was going to go after the leaders with or without backup, more voices trail in from the entranceway. Soon, you’re greeted with the sight of Jongdae, Yixing, and Jongin, who was sporting a pair of crutches.

While Jongdae fills everyone in on the fact that Chanyeol and Sehun finally got their district done and that all of the Baem compounds were destroyed, Jongin hobbles over to you and smacks you in the back of the head. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but it definitely shocked you and caught everyone else’s attention.

“If you ever threaten to shoot me again, I’ll fucking hurt you. Leader’s sister or not, you little shit.”

“You threatened to shoot him?” Minseok asks while attempting to hide a laugh.

“Oh sure, everyone thinks it’s funny now, but just wait until she points a gun at you.” He glares at you a moment before his gaze softens. “I’m glad you’re okay, though, even if I want to smack you again.”

You shoot him a grateful smile because you knew Jongin wasn’t going to hold a grudge for what you did, and maybe you did deserve a little smack for threatening to temporarily cripple him.

Junmyeon’s phone rings, and when he pulls it out, he groans and makes a grim face. “It’s the mayor.”

The mayor’s deep voice rumbles through the phone once Junmyeon answers it, and you all listen as he loudly cusses Junmyeon out and screams at him for what he did to the city. Junmyeon stares up at the ceiling as he barely listens to the man before he interrupts him.

“Call me tomorrow, and we can talk about it. I’m taking the rest of the night off.” He tells him before hanging up.

Minseok sighs from beside him and leans back into the couch. “That’s going to be fun.”

Suddenly, movement from the entranceway catches your attention, and you look over to see Chanyeol standing in the doorway by himself. Blood was splattered across one side of his body, and his face was devoid of emotion. He almost reminded you of the Chanyeol that was around after Sehun went missing, and when Sehun didn’t come in behind him, your stomach dropped.

“Where’s Sehun?” Baekhyun cautiously asks, everyone thinking the same horrible thoughts as you.

“He…” Chanyeol stops and clears his throat. “He took off once we were finished.”

When he doesn’t continue, Yixing finally asks, “He’s okay, right?”

“Physically, yeah… He’s fine.”

Relief floods through you as he says yeah. That means that all of you made it… You not only took down the freaking Baem, but you all survived doing it. You somehow did, what you would’ve considered, the impossible, but… what would make Sehun leave? Why would he not come home to his family now that this whole shitshow was over with?

“What do you mean physically he’s okay?” Your brother asks.

“The Baem made him choose… between Jaesuk and me. When he couldn’t, Jaesuk sacrificed himself… to save Sehun and me.”

Your stomach churns as you take in Chanyeol’s words. While Jaesuk was a Baem member, he was also Sehun’s friend. One that made this entire thing possible, and one that helped Sehun and Chanyeol survive tonight… You didn’t know him, but you certainly didn’t want this to be his ending.

You silently send a thank you to the man you never met for saving two people you cared about, and for helping bring down the last of the people who had a hand in your parent’s deaths. You were sure Jaesuk had his own reasons for doing what he did, but he helped you find peace nonetheless.

Nobody else had anything to say, or maybe it would be better to say that none of them knew what to say, so the room stayed quiet, almost like a moment of silence for Jaesuk. It would take a while… maybe a very long time… but Sehun would be okay someday. You, at least, hoped he would be.

You had hope that there would be a day in the future where you would all be okay. Where you had all moved on from the Baem and the events that had shaped you into the people you had become. Where the pain and the losses you faced would hurt a little less.

Until then, you had each other to help get through all the sadness and trauma you would no doubt keep enduring. You had your friends… your brother… and Baekhyun by your side… and for the first time in a very long time, you felt safe.


	16. Bonus Chapter

A few weeks had passed since EXO wiped the Baem off the face of the Earth, and things around the compound had definitely changed for the better. Everyone was less stressed out and less on edge, and it was a nice change from what you had grown used to. Ever since you came along, the men had been worried about the Baem. You've never known them in a world where the Baem weren't a problem, so it was fun to explore their more carefree personalities. That didn't mean, however, life had become all fun and games.

EXO's business nearly doubled when they eliminated the Baem. They picked up a lot of the Baem's old contacts since none of them wanted to risk working with a smaller, less experienced group. Of course, if EXO wasn't on everyone's radar before, which you were pretty sure they were, they definitely are now. They were one of the most powerful groups on this side of the hemisphere.

With the influx of business, Junmyeon had become buried in paperwork. He tried to say it was a nice change from blowing things up, but you knew he was two seconds away from throwing all of the paperwork in a pile and lighting it on fire. Minseok helped him with a lot of it, but he was often too busy helping Jongin train the new recruits.

Yes. New recruits.

After the success Jongdae and his old crew had in taking care of their districts the night the Baem were taken down, he threw out the idea of them possibly joining EXO. As it turns out, their old crew jumped at the opportunity to join. They were more than happy to help continue on Kyungsoo's legacy. They were a rowdy bunch, but they loved to share stories about Kyungsoo and Jongdae during their teenage years and embarrass the crap out of Jongdae. Plus, they got along with Jongin almost too well. Minseok often became exasperated by the bunch when the two were supposed to train them.

Everyone was beyond ecstatic that the Baem were no longer a threat. They felt like they were able to avenge their lost loved ones and come out on top in the end, but that didn't mean once everyone got home, everything was fine and dandy.

It took a couple of weeks for everyone to fall into a playful mood because there was one important member that was MIA at first, but once Sehun came home, everyone's spirits quickly lifted. You could see the change in him as soon as he came back, but whether that was due to his time with the Baem or losing Jaesuk, you weren't sure. You had very little doubts that both things played a significant role.

It took about a week before you could see Sehun becoming more and more relaxed and happy. Undoubtedly, it was partially due to Chanyeol and Yixing sticking by his side constantly and distracting him whenever his thoughts started to turn dark. The two men did everything in their power to help the youngest learn to cope and eventually accept the loss of not only Jaesuk but Kyungsoo as well since he had never had the chance to mourn him.

Sehun often came to you when he wanted a break from the two men or when he just wanted some peace and quiet. He knew he could come to you, and the two of you could talk about everything under the sun or nothing at all. It was comforting for him to be with someone he trusted and just exist, and you were grateful to be one of the people he could do that with.

While you did spend a lot of time with Sehun and the other men, the majority of your time was spent with Baekhyun. Your main source of comfort, calm, and happiness. Baekhyun no longer held himself back because of his fears. He made sure he told you he loved you every single day, especially if one of you were leaving the house and he did his absolute best to make you feel like the most special person on this planet. He had surprised you in the best possible way.

Admittedly, you had a more difficult time than you thought you would after killing one of the leaders. You had never taken someone's life before and while you didn't regret a single thing, it was still weird and unnerving to know you snuffed out someone's lifespan earlier than expected. You thought about their kids here and there, but the guys made sure to tell you that you shouldn't feel bad and often tried to get you to stop thinking about it.

Mostly, a small part of you was worried that you had caused future you problems by killing their fathers. What if you had created future monsters? Just like what was done to you and Junmyeon? You sought revenge for what was done to your parents, and you hoped with everything in you that they wouldn't continue the cycle.

This worry had caused you enough stress that Baekhyun had taken it into his own hands to actually plan the trip he had mentioned the day you attacked the Baem. Well, he semi-planned it and said, "the two of us will go wherever the wind takes us". He surprisingly got the okay from Junmyeon before you even knew it was happening and then, in the blink of an eye, you were getting ready to leave for a three-month-long trip to explore the world. 

All that was left now was to say goodbye.

Of course, the was easier said than done, thanks to Sehun and Yixing literally refusing to let the two of you leave the house. 

"You guys... we're coming back." Baekhyun sighs after five minutes of trying to get out the door. "It's not like we're going to stay away forever."

"No. You're leaving for too long. I won't allow it." Sehun stubbornly stands his ground.

Junmyeon walks over to the front door and shoos them away from it. "Come on. Come on. Let's let them go on their way."

"I want to go on a trip..." Jongin grumbles before shooting a glare at your brother. "I can't believe you're okay with this."

You smile at the oversized pouty babies in front of you. This was the infamous and widely feared EXO? Yixing literally looked like he was about to cry. "We'll be back in no time. Until then, how about you guys just don't blow up the city again."

When Jongin and Sehun looked away from you in the most suspicious way possible, your eyes immediately flashed over to Junmyeon, who had already narrowed his own at the two youngest. He opens his mouth to immediately scold them for whatever trouble they were about to get into before changing his mind.

"I'll deal with you two later. For now, you two," he points at you and Baekhyun, "have to get going, or you'll miss your flight."

After another round of hugs, you find yourself hugging your brother one last time. The moment was sweet, and you were happy until he ruined it when he pulled away from your embrace and pointed at you.

"Do not come back pregnant."

Your mouth falls open in shock, and you whack him in the arm while the men around you excitedly discuss what it would be like to have a little EXO baby running around the compound.

"I'm serious. I just barely got used to the idea of the two of you. We do not need a mini you running around here."

You feel Baekhyun's arm slide around your waist, and you look over to see him smiling mischievously at your brother. 

"You're not ready to be an uncle yet?" 

When Junmyeon looked like he was ready to knock Baekhyun out, Baekhyun laughs and relents. "Alright. Alright. We'll just make sure to get in a lot of practice for when you change your mind."

Before your brother could murder Baekhyun and ruin your trip, you push him towards the door. He fights you on it a little before finally letting you win the power struggle and opening the door, letting out a loud laugh thanks to Junmyeon's murderous expression. 

When you hear Jongin lean over and ask Minseok, "He doesn't seriously think they haven't already been having sex right under his own roof, right?" You quickly wave goodbye to the guys and follow Baekhyun out the door.

As he stands on the porch waiting for you with a giant, happy smile lighting up his face, excitement floods you, and you can't wait to start your trip with Baekhyun and open this new chapter of your life. Who knows? Maybe someday you and Baekhyun will bring a mini you into this world but until then, you were going to live life to the fullest and start making some happy memories for once in your life.


End file.
